The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1895-11-14
An INFAMOUS DEED.
The Terrible Work OF the French Revolu
tionary Tribunal Under Napoleon.

lie Terrible Work OF the French Revolu
tionary Tribunal Under Napoleon.
The scenes of that awful night defy
description. The castle of Vincennes
was beset with guards when finally, at
about an hour before midnight, the
various members of the court assem-
bled. Their looks were dark and
troubled as they wondered who the
mysterious culprit might be. None
knew but Hulin, the president, the
judge advocate and Savary the destined
eNecutioner. In neighboring room
was the duke, pale and exhausted by
his long journey, munching a slender
meal, which he shared with his dog,
and, explaining TO his iailer his dole
full thoughts at the prospects of a long
Imprisonment. 1t would be anchor
ated if only he could crafty his passion
for hunting, and surely they two, as
prisoner and keeper, might range the
forest in company. But at last he fell
asleep from sheer fatigue.
The jailer, Harel, a picked man who
had kept guard over Arena and his fel.
lows (who, it viii be recalled, had been
executed on improved charges of con-
spiracy to assassinate Bonaparte),
was sometime fiery Jacobin. He
could not well encourage the eXpecta-
lions of his new prisoner, dreary as
they were, for he had that very morning
supervised the digging of grave in the
castle moat. At midnight the duke was
awakened and confronted with the
judge advocate. Real was unaccounta-
bly, absent, and the interrogatorv so
carefully prepared by the chief magis-
trate was not at hand. To the rude
questions formulated by Hulin, with
the aid of memorandum from Murat,
the prisoner, in spite of repeated hints
from the members of the court mar
tial as to the consequences, would only
reply that he had a pension from Eng
land, and had applied to her ministers
for military service; that he hoped to
fight for his cause with troops raised
i'll Germany from among the dis
affected and the emigrants; that he
had already fought against France.
But he stoutly denied any relations
with Dumouriez or Pichegru and all
knowledge of the plot to assassinate
the first consul.
He was then called to the bar in the
dimly lighted sitting-room where the
commission sat To the papers con-
tanning questions and answers he was
ironically permitted to afiX demand
for an audience with the first consul.
My name, my station, my mode of
thought and the horror of my situa-
ton" he said, INSPIRE me with hope
that he will not refuse my request"
The revolutionary tribunal followed its
instincts: it's members, knowing well
the familiar statutes under which such
bodies had acted since the days of the
convention, but not having at hand the
words or forms of verdict as pre-
Scribed by the pitiless laws concerning
those who had borne arms against
France, left in the record a blank to be
filled out later, and pronounced their
Judgment that the regular sentence"
be executed at once. They We're actu-
ally engaged in composing a petition
for clemenCy to the first consul when
Savary entered the room and informed
himself of what had been done and
what they were then doing. Snatching
the pen from Hulin's hand, he ex-
claimed: THE rest is my affair.""
and left the room. 1t was now
two in the morning of the
21st. "Follow me-" said the taciturn
Harel, land summon all your courage"
y few PAGES through the moat, a turn
OF a corner, and the flare of torches
displayed a file of troops not far from
an open grave. AS the adjutant began
to read the sentence, the victim faltered
for ii moment and exclaimed: ooh,
God! what have [ done?" But in an
instant he regained the mastery of him
self. Calmly clipping lock of his hair,
and drawing a ring from his finger,
he asked that they might be sent to
Princess Charlotte. A volley-and in
an instant he was dead.-Prof. William
NJ. Sloane, in Century.