The New Orleans Democrat., 1876-05-21
"DAMfNS, BED OF STEEL"
Tae PEAnFUL VENGEANCE OF TINE
ansssrsH .F8ta 0DYA1ADTD.

VIo actors, In the wonderful drama, the
leet scene OF which was being played al
Versailles In the year 1744, when "IAouis
thewollst1elUvet,' the 'la France" oi
tkAt wonderfully -bedizened scarlet wo.
nan, with her band boxes and rogue
pots, lay a-dying; lank scare crows
.pfOwIing, hunger-stricken, through the
ktghways and byeways; the dull millions
grinding foredone at the wheel Of labor
the Bicetre Hospital. 'eight to bed, =
pCaying, If they prayed at all, for his
death. The curtain was ready to fall
ever Louis, stricken with loath-
some and Infectious disorder and,
grouped In front Of the footlights,
stood old Cardinal Richelieu, with
~ 'dissipitated mastiff face" his
son, the Due de Frousac, the Prince de
C6nde. the Duke D'Orleans, few
women with volatile salts and "smiles
fer this constellation, sighs for that, "
bat keeping at respectful distance
from tho sickroom and. unseen by the
selfish crow, "the pale grinning shadow
~ death, ceremoniously ushered along
by another grinning shadow Of eti-
auette." The curtain was ready to fall,
and the music was not only that of
gTOaning organs, but that of the thun-
DOR, for the elements themselves seemed
70 rejoice over the deathbed Of the old
profiigate e-the lightning flashing and
the torrents Of rain dashing madly
against the chateau windows as the
ence weIl-beloved drew near the
boundary stream whore prince and
peasant alike have 70 take off their
shoes.
Well, indeed. may Carlyle wonder
whether the ghosts Of the five hundred
thousand "who sank shamefuIly on 80
many battlefelds from Rossback to
Quebec that the kings harlot might
take revenge for an epigram,' crowded
round that terrible deathbcd If they
did, surely the spectre of tortured Da-
Mlens swelled the train of the shadows
siroling round the dying debaucheel
Seventeen years before this dread
scene. as the king one evening in Janu-
AIRY was leaving the chateau of Yer
-aiIIca, In order to visit his numberless
tNyorites, q man rushed forward through
NE company Of courtiers and atten-
aants, and stabbed him i'm the right side
with small knife. Tho weapon, q com
mon pocket-knife. was by no means q
myrderous one. for the king cried out,
This man has given me n blow. he
must be either mad or drunk !" but the
sOurtiers. who Mt once captured the
wretch, at once attempted to burn him
TO death with their torches. 1t was
thought that the weapon might be poi
sened, and an unfortunate dog was
caught and wounded with it but, al
slough no evil results followed. the cow
ardly old monarch refused to believe
nat he was not dying, and persisted in
senfessing several times.
The would-be assassin was found to
ke a man named Damiens, who had
been ('everything by turns and nothing
tsng'o soldier, schoolmaster. valet,
domestic i'm a Jesuit college, thief. luna
tic, and exile and all his relatives were
at once arrested and cast into prison
Tn two or three days the kings scratch
Was perfectly healed, and the poor
wretch was brought TO trial for having
dared to ipfiict It, Damieps asserted
that he had not intended to kill Louis,
but only frighten him and, as he used
tho smallest and shortest Of the two
blades which his knife contained, it is
likely he told the truth.
The unfortunate miscrcant presented
but a sorry sight when no appeared be
fore the Parliament. for, as in the Jail
he had shown signs Of madness, and
had bitten his tongue. all his teeth had
been drawn, and for fear that he would
poison himself he had been half killed
by emetics. What else was done to
him before his trial it is impossible to
tell, for even when he was removed at
night from Versailles to the Concierge
rie, people were prohibited from com
ing to the windows upon pain Of being
fred at and when be made his oppear-
anoe upon hts trial his fare ,rds hidden
beneath n WdTed cloth.
The Parliament made short work Of
him, and. though it was only too evi-
dent that he was slightly deranged, he
was with much formality. sentenced to
death and to tortures such as even ut
this distance of q hundred and twenty
years read like those in the pages of the
great Italian poet, .-.-...,.
singular, and shameful to relate, days
before Damiens was tried the place was
made ready for his execution, and di-
rectly after the sentence had been
passed he was conveyed to the spot
but. as though the poor wretch could
Rot by any possibility have been hur-
rted out Of the world quickly enough,
the exccutioner had TO suffer several
days imprisonment for not having had
everything in readiness for his horrid
task when the cortege arrived
The sentence was. indeed. a dread one,
including as it did that Damiens should
be put to ordinary and extra torture.
that he should make dmeflde honorable |
before the door Of the principal church
in Paris. expressing his repentance, and
ask pardon from God, the king. and
Justice that ho should then be carried
to the scaffold land have the flesh Of
his breast, arms, thighs and legs torn
off with hot pinchers his right hand |
holding the knife, burned with flaming
sulphur; and melted lead. boiling oil,
wax. and sulphur together to be poured |
upon the places where the flesh was
torn off," and that afterwards his |
body should be torn asunder by four
horses, burned and its ashes scattered
to the winds.
This reads like the frenzied dream Of +.
a Dante over the torments Of an nten- |
sitied Inferno, rather than the calm /
judicial condemnation Of number of |
beings pretending TO be human; but 1t |
was carried out line by line. and word |
by word. Just as was one exactly similar |
IN 1910 upon Ravaillac, that other mad |
man who assassinated Henry ~ In the |
latter case. however. after the horses
had torn the senseess body for one
hour. the vile mob, consisting largely of