180 THE LIFE OF SCIENCE 



be as long as possible, and the society people who hired windows 

 knew that they would get their money's worth. The poorer spec- 

 tators had to stand in the square or lose their places, but the richer 

 ones would retire to the rooms whenever there was an intermezzo 

 and play cards. The intermezzi were needed to enable the pris- 

 oner to recruit his strength for the next turn. The Count de 

 Tocqueville remarks: "La plume se refuse a retracer les efTroy- 

 ables details des soufTrances d J un malheureux insense sur lesquels 

 les bourreaux s'acharnerent pendant plusieures heures." On the 

 morning of that fateful day Damiens was submitted to a final tor- 

 ture in the "chambre de la question," and it was carried to within 

 an inch of his life, being discontinued only when the physicians 

 and surgeons declared that death was dangerously near. This 

 torture having been as fruitless as the preceding ones it was de- 

 cided to proceed with the punishment. Damiens was entrusted to 

 the clergy for the care of his soul, and then carried to the Place 

 de greve more dead than alive. 



However ghastly and shocking these tortures were to any nor- 

 mal person, what is far more shocking is the fact that so many 

 people of fashion found pleasure and excitement in them. In this 

 crucial respect that extra-refined Parisian society was on the same 

 level as the Iroquois Indians whose delight it was to prolong the 

 sufferings of their victims — on the same level as those untutored 

 savages but with no excuse. 



The admirable elegance of the eighteenth century was indeed, 

 as measured by later standards, only a veneer, concealing the most 

 disgusting license and brutality, not only in the underworld but 

 in the upper one, in the very highest spheres, even in the sphere 

 of royalty which was generally supposed to be almost divine. The 

 damning point is that the evil conduct of royalty and nobility was 

 well known to the multitude, and yet the authors of such misdeeds 

 were not disgraced (as they would certainly be to-day) but hon- 

 ored and even adored. Louis XV was called ff Le bien aime," the 

 Beloved! There are plenty of brutes and swine among our own 

 contemporaries, but they have to hide themselves very carefully. 



