Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1911-06-29
convicted by the mob's tribunal would

Of them dragging themselves, some
erect, all Of them showing in their pale
and haggard features the mark OF
death. Standing in the carts, they were
| driven toward the Seine and crossed
It by bridge entering the Place de
la Revolution. since called the Place de
la Concorde There stood the guillo-
tine with persons to work 1t ready to
lop off twenty-one heads, and there
stood crowd, kept back by soldiers,
to witness the grewsome sight. Tho
carts stopped beside the machine, and
the victims descended from the carts.
And now began a work that even an
implement so well adapted to the pur-
pose found it difficult to perform. Each
one Of the prisoners, hatless and with
his hands tied behind his back, in turn
stepped up to it, was laid upon It,
strapped to it; the knife fell, his head
rolled into the basket, and his body
was removed to make room for the
next victim. Fifteen of the twenty
one had been executed when the
guillotine refused TO work. Whether
the knife got wedged in the grooves
or whether the machinery that raised
the AK or that which detached it after
it had been raised got out of order
doesn't matter. Something had gone
wrong, and those in charge of the exc
cutions were unable to fix it.
The proceedings were stopped, and q
messenger was sent for mechanics to
put the guillotine in order. This re-
quired time. Waiting is not conducive
to discipline. The soldiers who were
there TO keep the crowd back grew lax,
and by the time workmen had arrived
people had elbowed their way close
upon the remaining six men standing
in line waiting for the repairs on the
machine that was TO make corpses Of
them.
''Get backr' cried the guards, shov-
ing the crowd with the butts OF their
muskets.
This was repeated so often and was
disobeyed so often that at last very
little attention was paid to 1t. Chateau
brun presently found himself in the
first line of spectators. Then, instead
of being in the line next the guillotine,
he found himself in the second In the
pushing that continued he was wedged
back into the third line and at last was
at the back of the crowd that was there
to see his head cut off.
There was something radically
/ wrong with the guillotine. The men
liking it hammered and pulled and
pushed and screwed and unscrewed.
Meanwhile the day was ended, and 1t
was growing dark. Chateaubrun, con-
sidering the sight Of his execution not
wortl so long wait. quietly walked
away.
The Place de la Concorde is at the
beginning of the Champs d'Elysees.
Chateaubrun, every moment expecting
to be missed, concealing as we'll as he
could his tied hands, his heart beat.
ing wildly. passed into the Champs
dElysees eager to run, but forcing
himself to walk leisurely. There he
made his way onward in the shadow
of the trees. Finally, when he had
gone far enough from the scene of his
intended execution, meeting a man
coming toward him, he said:
IN sieur, friend of mine Just now,
who is great wag. tied my hands be-
hind my back and ran away with my
hat. Kindly unloosen me-"
Certainly, m'sieur; it will give me |
great pleasure to do So"
Thanking the man who had relieved |
him of the last mark Of being an in |
tended guillotine victim, Chateaubrun
went into side street and was lost.
The guillotine was fixed, but there
were twenty instead of twenty-ons
persons executed.
No word of Chateaubrun's escape
reached his wife during the day of ex.
ecuuon, nor the next, nor the next.
Indeed. 1t is questionable II his alb
sence from the number of the con.
demned was noticed by the authori. |
ties Nine. Chateaubrun was In the
condition of one stunned. Boyer call.
ed to see her and found her heart.
broken. She told him she wished to
die. He begged her to live for his
sake, confessing the love he had long
felt for her. She was too paralyzed
mentally and physically to even con.
slider what he said. Not TIL some time
lfterward did she realize that he might
nave had her husband put out of his
way.
But within short time a woman
stopped at Nine. Chateaubruns home
md told her that her husband was
live In the Netherlands and desired
Ter to come 10 him. He had not
AIRED write her. fearing to implicate
er as correspondent with an emirre
waiting even to announce her
appiness to Boyer she set out for the
lace OF her husbands exile, and In a
'w days he who was supposed TO have
one TO his long home and the wife :,
no had mourned him were clasped In :,
ich others arms.
Chateaubrun never had any evidence
lat his old friend had BETRAYED him
Icept that his wife told him that III
oyer had declared his love for her CT
believed then that Boyer had caus- to
his downfall But he never met =
oyer again. Subsequent changes
aced the Jacobin under another fac.