Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-05-18
TERRORISM.
Scenes Under "Le Terreur''-Reve-
latiOns of an Old Manuscript.

Scenes Under Gle Terreur'-ReVe.
IatiOns of an Old Manuscript.
The Pail Mall Gazette says; 1.-THE
eminent dramatic writer, NJ. Victorien
Sardou, has just communicated to a
literary friend curious manuscript OF
the first revolution, written by q clerk
employed in the settlement of the affairs
of the emigres. The proper time for
publishing this Interesting manuscript
would evidently have been when the
Chamber under the Restoration was
considering the, claims of the. nobility
and gentry, whose estates had been con-
fiscated, but it seems to have escaped
notice. 1t will be remembered that, in
spite of the eloquent resistance Of Gen.
eral Foy, a milhard was voted to indem-
Nifty the emigres, some of whom had
fought against France The documents
presented to M. Sardou by M. Amedee
Achard are chiefly interesting as show
ing the callousness of the Parisian
burgeois during the worst days of the
Terror. 1t remains on record that
twenty-three theaters played nightly
during that appalling period. though it
is perhaps less certain that ladies going
to the opera had to hold up their dresses
to prevent them from being stained with
the blood overhowing the cutters. The
following is the indifferent way in which
the author of the manuscript notes one
of the most sanguinary episodes of his
time
"Elizabeth, sister of Louis Capet, was
guillotined with twenty-four others; the
Widow Senogau, Malesherbe's sister, was
among the number-she passed last but
one. Elizabeth was executed the last,
and her head was shown to the people.
Our bourgeois, good family man, takes
his wife to see all the civic fetes, and no
doubt saw Talleyrand, Bishop of Autun
performing mass at the altar of the
country, and other strange things. On
the 18th Prairal he took his spouse to
see twenty-one scamps guillotined in the
National Garden, and two days after
ward the happy pair attended the fete of
the Supreme Being, and no doubt saw
the sea green prophet Robespierre in
his sky.blue coat and silk stockings, and
Catherine Theot, Injured to prophecy
and the Bastile, pouring over the Book
of Revelation. We ate our provisions,
says the writer, seated alongside some
gunners; then we ascended a kind of
mountain, and heard patriot hymns. l
think that history does not offer the ex-
ample of such day. 1t was physically
and morally sublime. Atheism, super
stition and all their frightful satellites
were annihilated forever. Sensitive
minds (les dnes sensibles) will never
forget itq A short time afterward one Of
these ames sensibles had evidently burnt
the gods it adored, for the bourgeois
writes-and his indifference becomes
more and more sublime De cadi 10,
fine weather 60 out with a patrol of
forty men, commanded by Audoux and
another. Drawn up in line of battle
along the Rue st. Honore, we see the
traitors Robespierre, Couthon, St Just,
the maire, the national agent, etc., led
to execution amid the malediclions of
the people. There were twenty-five of
them. Then follows Primidi IL,
fine weather. Seventy-one members of
the Municipal Council of the Commune
guillotined amid the exclamations of an
immense crowd which they wished to
seduce, and which cursed them. An
other day: 'Dined at the Mere Miehels
for thirty sous Thirty-eight fermiers
generau guillotined.' '0n the 18th Pra-
trial, the weather cold and changeable:
Had to prepare dinner for my Wife
thirteen traitors guillotined;' aud few
days later: Ny wife takes bath; the
ex-Marquis de Nesles guillotined for
forging assignats. There is not single
expression Of opinion nor one reflection
in this strange ledger beyond the denom-
nations Of traitor, etc.