Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-08

prison, OF WnOm 70 were certainty masSa'
cred, and 233 most probably shared theil
fate; 1888 were set free. This makes total
of 1928, who, We may take for granted, per.
ished during that horrible, aud. to use La.
marines expression, "infernal" night.
1t may be well imagined that there was
not much attention paid to decency, for the
men and women were oddly mixed. With
the lightness of heart which characterizes
the French, they amused themselves as best
they could. They played cards, improvised
games, made love, and even danced. Their
gaiety was, however, at the best but an ill
adjusted mask. and it may be said of the
Conciergerie that its very stones, like the
sands of the Roman Coliseum, are saturated
WITH TEARS AND BLOOD,
Owing to its proximity to the Palais de
Justice, almost every distinguished victim
of the Reign of Terror passed at least night
within its portals. In the cell now con-
verted into sort of half chapel and half
museum, Marie Antoinette lived living
death from August 2 to October 16-the day
of her execution. This cell was then con.
sidered one of the worst in the prison. 1t
was dark, damp and unwholesome. The
walls were not papered, a scrap of dirty
broken chair, were all the furniture it con-
tanned. Nine. Richard, kind soul, risked
her life to make it little more comfortable,
changed the sheets frequently, filled the
pitcher with fresh water, and brought her
august prisoner peaches and flowers.
Not far from this den was the old chapel,
now destroyed, where the Girondins sang for
the last time lie chant du depart, and hard
by yet another chapel of even greater
antiquity, which in 1894 was the scene of
the last night of Robespierre. Horribly
wounded and in fearful pain, the wretch
writhed in agony all night, making the
place hideous with his shrieks and groans.
In an adjacent chamber Nine. Hebert the
ex-nun, mingled her tears with those of the
lovely Lucille Desmoulins. They both as
cended the scaffold together. In the Sale
Heloise ct Abelard the pretty coultesan
Egle, only II years of age, spent three days
preceding her trial and condemnation. ''By
what means do you earn your LIVELIHOOD"
asked the Judge.
"By my beauty. as you do, you dog, by
the guillotine," was the sharp retort.
TO HUMILIATE THE QUEEN.
1t was-and this is detail but little
known-originally intended to send Egle to
the scafold in the same tumbriI as the
Queen, in order further to humiliate her.
Hearing this, Egie cried out, "Send me,
and will manage to cast myself at her feet
and implore her pardon before all the peo-
ple-sales chiens que vous etes tous." Poor
Egle was very fearful lest she should "sleep
with the devil" the night after her execu-
tion.
"You will rest with Mary Magdalene,"
said the sanity NJ. Emery, who was known
as the consoling angel of the Conciegerie.
Nine. Roland inhabited a cell on the Sec
ond floor, where there was a little light,
H. Ill -,
able memoirs. The Conciergerie witnessed
the last hours of those beautiful creatures
the ladies De Sainte Amaranthe the vic
Tins alike of the vengeance and lust of
Robespierre. It heard the last song of
Andre Chenier, and 1t beheld the Christian
resignation of the octogenarian Duchesse
d'Ayen and her relations the Princess de
and Vicomtesse and Marechale de
Noailles. Hither was brought Philippe
Egalite, Duke of Orleans.
THE GREAT-GRANDFATHE
of the young Prince who was recently a
prisoner at the ConcIergerie, and from its
portals he went to meet a death which be-
come him better than the life he was to for
felt Mime. Du Barry is perhaps the only
prisoner, male or female, of whom the express
sion of terror is recorded. She rent the
air with cries for mercy, and was forced into
the fatal tumbrll. To mention all the Illus
trious victims whose shades haunt the pre-
cincts of this all too famous prison would
be to recall almost every conspicuous name
in the annals of the Terror. There is one
young girl, however, who must not be
Corday. In the cell ad-
joining that of Marie Antoinette, Huer and
Nine. Tussaud were permitted to take like
nesses of this beautiful woman, whom LAM
artine has celebrated as the Angel of AS
'assination.
From 1892 to 1894 nearly 10, 900 persons
we're imprisoned at the Conciergerie, of
whom certainly not less than two-thirds
we're either executed or massacred. In 1926
he greater part of the old prison was de-
nolished, but in the present century several
amous personages have been imprisoned
Ill, after the failure of the
5oulogne conspiracy, and Prince Pierre
Bonaparte. previous to his trial for the al
eyed murder of Victor Noir.