New-York tribune., 1910-01-30

..osoue rapidity through the farce of trial
e ,ben hurry him TO. the scaffod.
anu 80 of mad nlirth rang through the halls
=, pa1ais de Justice. once a naive jury
~ oelas his fellows what became of the
I.o,,ors condemned 10 transportation, won
-. Il there was not some risk of having
-.oseols Of the republic captured by the
-. They roared with laughter. crying,
.11bat 4 joke, Expose our vessels TO the
.soo5f The condemned
e''o = tho lies Sainte- Marguerite, and then,
ne . league from there meg drink
= u,,;or- TInville watching from window, as
- his daily habit, the passage OF the con-
s,,ned saw a prisoner shake the manu- Oh one
bo was leaving for the seaffoid' stamping
200 he shouted 10 the jailers, and, point
inc ont the indiscTeet author OF harihiess
1-tesx said: There there, That man in
t1ock, Lock him up" The very next day
o,,vatiere the object Of his wrath was guilio-
80 Il is no wonder that, as NJ. Lenotre re-
,,,.-l,s love of life grew weaker under the Ter
-, md women actually pushed their
way 10 the scaffold.
11,o -asction was bound come and equally
Inevitable was the fall of the man who had
4cna so much TO craze France with blood
r-,orr,i6or brought q change, and Fouquier-
,r;-,i1le faced the bar over which he had ruled
nth an iron hand. The President of the Tri-
,o,ral AT the time of his trial Liger de Yer
s5-,,- was ar honorable man. and he had repu
table colleagues. But even if the republic had
rot begun to put lis house N order Fouquier-
rinyjIle would probably have had TO pay his
debt The country was shaking off its obses-
con. II was awakening 10 a sense of the un-
s,eakahle crimes which had been committed
IN The name Of Liberty and in a surge Of shame
and hatred II sought the head of the man who
had used with inhuman ruthlessness the power
lsca5 =, his hands He was a lawyer to the
ios+ and argued his case with all of his old
,artifogging ingenuity. You are putting the
tribunal ou its trial he would roar, "as though
. revolutionary tribunal were an ordinary one!"
IrnulacatIy came back the answer: However
i,,nerious circumstances may then have been,
however severe those laws may have been, you
had no right = add to their cruelty; you ought
rather to have carried your head to the scat
field" There was 10 hope for him. NJ. Lenotre
&c moved occasionally 10 something like COM
rassion for the leading agents Of the Terror.
He sees how they We're overwhelmed, and per-
hans transformed. by circumstances; how their
cbsrnel house appetite grew with what ii was
God rnon and how in their frenzy they invite
,;,v IS We'll as scorn. But he wastes no words
= s,-rnnstbv on Fouquier- Tinville. He leaves
tirr as he finds him. a shape Of dread. The
sgure Of the infamous Terrorist is indeed one
70 contemplate only with shudder, and as the
author cites incident after incident luridly illu
,ninating the record OF his activities as Public
Prosecutor the readers blood turns cold. The
murder Of Marie Antoinette briefly summarized
as il is here gives the last touch to a heart-
rending narrative. But if that narrative is al
mos: intolera bly, painful il is also absorbing. NJ.
Ienotre is a rare historian. His pages are re-
rnarkable alike for simple dignity and dra-
latic power.