314 



ESCAPE FROM THE GUILLOTINE. 



of his happiness they both having- been suitors to the reigning 

 beauty of Lyons, the consequence was that De Pouilli immediately 

 became the inmate of a dungeon, there to wait until the moment had 

 arrived when the revenge of N could consign him to the guil- 

 lotine. On the occasion of her first visit to her husband in prison 

 she had been summoned to attend the wretch who was the source of 

 all her misery in an apartment, the window of which looked out upon 

 the guillotine, where three unfortunate individuals were about to be 

 executed, and addressing her, he said, without any introduction 



:( There, feast your eyes upon the scene before you, and consider 

 that ere three days pass, the axe, which you see now about to fall on 

 those miscreants, will sever the beautiful neck of your adored." 



" Unable to endure the sight, for at the moment he finished the axe 

 fell upon one of the unfortunate wretches," related Mad. De Pouilli, 

 " I sank to the ground, and on my recovery found him watching over 

 me with a look of anxious tenderness with my faculties returned 

 my sense of De Pouilli's situation, and I eagerly seized on this 

 moment to endeavour to procure his liberty. As his wife did I sue 

 for him, but in vain in vain I conjured by every motion calculated 

 to move the breast of man with compassion all in vain ! At last I 

 touched upon the love he so often had professed for me, and named 

 this as an opportunity to prove his sincerity. Hitherto he had gazed 

 upon me with a voidness of countenance, but like oil thrown on fire it 

 revived the slumbering flame of hatred which I had hoped to have 

 subdued." 



" Can you," said he, " remind me of those moments, and use them 

 as arguments in his favour ! Do you suppose that my memory only 

 retains the recollection of my former love, and not the means by 

 which my happiness was blasted ? Can I forget that I had a rival 

 that that rival was the high-born, haughty and favoured de Pouilli, 

 and that he now lies in prison waiting only my command to die ? 

 No, no ; do not deceive yourself, but hear the only terms on which 

 he lives. The time is arrived when priestcraft and all its rules are 

 set at nought freedom for heart and hand is amongst the blessings 

 of the age. Consent to be mine discard him from your love and 

 and he is free !" 



" He uttered this last sentence in a slow impressive manner, that I 

 might fully understand his meaning ; and when he had concluded, 

 I still continued to gaze upon him, as if bereft of my senses. Whether 

 he thought favourably of my silence, I know not, but relaxing the 

 severity of his countenance, he approached me, and inquired whether 

 I was prepared to purchase my husband's life on such terms. The 

 inquiry aroused me from the state of torpor into which his declara- 

 tion had thrown me, every nerve seemed strung anew, my voice 

 was changed from that of supplication to that of desperation, as I 

 bitterly reviled him, and rushed from the room, leaving him motion- 

 less with surprise." As she finished her relation, she burst into tears, 

 unable any longer to control her feelings, and wringing her hands 

 implored the intercessions of heaven in behalf of her husband. 



A few mornings after, her husband informed her that N had 



directed him to prepare for his execution on the following day. With 



