198 THE FRENCH CONVULSIVES. 



Bourbe. A woman yielding her breast to a child that child who draws its 

 existence from her that tender and attentive protection which she alone is 

 capable of bestowing upon it that little heart which begins to beat upon that 

 maternal bosom 'all this begets a forgetfulness of the crimes of a woman 

 of all her treachery and weakness : it would seem as if the love she bears 

 her child absolved her from the consequences of all the rest that the life 

 which she has given replaces the life she has taken away. With these feel- 

 ings I entered the apartment on the morning Henriette was to die. Her 

 calmness, her attitude, and all that I knew of her early years, and of 

 her horrible misfortunes, produced a violent effect upon me. I begged to be 

 left alone with her ; her child lay asleep upon her bosom. I approached 

 her. ' Do you recollect me ?' said I. She raised her eyes, and by a motion 

 of her head gave me to understand that she did. It was easy to perceive 

 how much it cost her. ' Henriette,' said I, ' you see before you one who has 

 adored, who still loves you ; if you have any last request to make, confide it 

 to me I will see it complied with/ She spoke not a word in reply, 

 but there was a tenderness in her look poor girl ! if you had given me such 

 a look at a former period but one such look, you had been mine mine for 

 ever, and I had been wholly thine. ' Henriette/ said I, ' it is then true you 

 must die. So young, so beautiful you, who might have been my wife 

 who might have brought up our young family, and enjoyed a happy exist- 

 ence ; and, at length, an aged grandmother, with silver locks, die on some fine 

 autumnal evening, without pain, surrounded by your grandchildren : but a 

 few moments, and adieu for ever/ She still continued mute she pressed 

 her infant to her breast, and wept. They were the first tears I had observed 

 her shed. I watched them gently trickling down her cheeks ; her child re- 

 ceived them all. Thus bathed in tears, I looked upon that child as my own. 

 ' At all events/ said I, ' this infant shall be my son' The door opened 

 before I had concluded the sentence ' That child is mine!' said a man who 

 entered. I turned round, and recognized the jailor of the prison. ' I have 

 come in search of my child/ continued he, ' it shall not be in the keeping of 

 another. Come, Henri/ added he, drawing from a box a white cloth ; and 

 approaching the mother without looking at her, he seized the infant as deli- 

 cately as he could ; the poor little creature slept suspended from its mother's 

 bosom violence was necessary to remove it from that place whence it drew 

 the principle of its existence. The mother remained passive the infant was 

 enveloped in the cloth, and carefully placed in the box. The old jailor was 

 triumphant. ' Come, Henri/ said he, ' the mother dishonours not the child, 

 and you shall not be touched by Chariot/ He departed it was time that 

 he did so. " Chariot !" Henriette raised her eyes at the word. ' Chariot !' 

 said she, in an unaltered voice, ' what does he mean ?' and she trembled with 

 emotion. 'Alas?' said I, ' Chariot in the prison dialect signifies execu- 

 tioner/ ' I recollect it / she replied, adding, with an expression indicative 

 of grief and regret ' Oh ! how guilty I am what severe warnings did you 

 give me ! what a name you pronounced in my ears, without its being pos- 

 sible to misunderstand you. What days of happiness lost ! what misery 

 incurred by not having listened to you ! For I understood you I felt your 

 meaning. I remembered all ; I loved you as you loved me, but I thought 

 myself humbled degraded, and from that hour I date my ruin. Forgive 

 forgive me; in the name of Chariot forgive me!' and she held out her 

 arms to me, and I felt her burning cheek touch mine. It was the first and 

 last time/' 



Then follow, in rapid succession, the Place de Greve, with its 

 terrific apparatus, its gay and heartless ministers, and its assembled 

 thousands of spectators: the execution, the burial in unhallowed 

 ground nothing is wanting to the terrible finishing of the picture. 



