Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1854-05-04

Number 23.

I final blessing, to whom she should give
token Of remembrance; and desired
, her then TO leave St. Petersburg. and re-
| turn to her native province, The let
} ter, which was blotted all over with
tears, was scarcely finished, when he
was summoned to the scaffold.
1t was eighty-6ve years since the
Russian capital had been the scene of an
execution. The exact time, when the
last sentence of the law was to be car
ried into effect upon FIVE men who had
! filed so large a place in the public mind,
was kept a secret, and there were but
few spectators. 1t was two O'Clock on
the morning Of the s5th of July, and
the population of the capital were wrap
ped in their slumbers; but at midsum-
mer, in those high northern ATTITUDES,
only brief interval Of obscurity seper-
ates two days; and even at thatearly
hour every object was plainly discerna-
bic. During the night scaffold, large
enough for the execution of the doomed
FIVE, had been erected on the ramparts
of the fortress which overlooks the Neva.
( At its foot, fire burned in brazier.
A faint note of drums, here and there,
and few trumpet notes, summoned
company from each regiment to march
to the place Of execution; and then all
was still. In an hour the same drums
announced the arrival of the culprits
whose punishment had been commuted
to Punishment to Siberia. They were
arranged on their knees in front of the
golloEs, while their sentence was read
to them. Their swords were then bro
ken above their heads, in token of de-
gradation from their military rank;
their epulettes, uniforms, and decora-
tons were thrown into the brazier and
consumed; and they, clad in the gray
garments of criminals, were marched
in front Of the gibbet back to their place
of confinement. No sooner had they
disappeared within the gloomy portals
of the fortress, than the FIVE who were
doomed to the gallows appeared upon
the ramparts, their heads closel ly muf-
fled in the hoods Of their gray capotes.
The distance and the covering prevented
their faces from being seen by the few
spectators; but their bearing was calm
and firm. There was no appearance of
unmanly fear or of bravado equally un-
manly. They had played for great
stake, and had lost, and were prepared for
the consequences. They ascended the
platform with firm steps; the ropes were
adjusted about their necks, above the
hoods of their capotes; the executioner
stepped aside, and the platform fell
Pestel and Kakhofski were strangled at
once; but the moose slipped over the
hoods around the faces of the others,
and they fell bruised and MANNED into
the pit below, amidst the confused mass
of planks and timbers of the platform.
There was no one present who had au-
thority to stay the execution; and had
there been, there is little probability
that any respite would have been grant,
ed. The platform was arranged again.
Bestoujeff- -Rumine was so much injured
as to be unable to walk, and was car
ried upon the scafold. Ryleief Was
stunned by the fall, but recovering HIM
self. and saying Can nothing go right
with me-not even death?' walked
calmly up to the appointed place. Woe
to the country where they can neither
conspire, nor Judge, nor hangP exclaim-
ed Mouravieff, as he again took bis
station. Again the drop fell, and the
roll of the drum announced that the ex-
ecution was over. 1t was FIVE o'clock;
in an hour the paraphenalia of death
had disappeared, and when the awaken
ed populace thronged to the spot, they
found nothing left TO indicate the fatal
tragedy that had been there enacted
Thus ended the first and the last at
tempt that has been made in Russia in
favor of constitutional government.
The Gear took no unworthy vengence
upon the families of the offenders. To
the father of Pestel, he gave conSid-
cradle estate, and sum of money; and
appointed his brother one of his own
aid-de-camp. The widow of Ryleieff
had been left destitute; Nicholas sent
to her profer of aid. She refused it,
with a heroic constancy worthy of her
husband; all she asked was to be con-
demned to share his fate. Without her
knowledge, however, he made ample
provision for the support and education
of her children. No punishment what
ever was inflicted upon the common sol
diers, who had evidently been missled
into the belief that they were in arms to
defend the cause of their lawful soyer-s
eign. They were merely drafted into
companies by themselves, and sent to
the Caucasus, to give them an opportu-
nity to regain their lost military honor,
by fighting against the enemies of the
Car; decision which they hailed with
shouts of joy.O s5i11Ta.c7 -77
: One more scene properly belongs to
his eventful drama The coronation
If the Emperor and Empress was to
axe place at Moscow, the ancient capi-
al, the mother of the Russian cities
which had arisen with more than its
I'D magnifcence from the terrible con-
lagratiou of 1919. Every state and
province Of the vast empire bad sent
Is deputies; the pomp of civilization
yied with the splendor Of barbarisD.-.
Svery country sent its ministers; the