———_—_ eeeeersae 
HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
massacred on this occasion, amount- 
eat 244. .The massacre at the 
abbey. was. suspended, after the 
murder of the priests, about an 
hour. During that interval a kind 
of tribunal was erected, in which a 
few of the most abandoned and fe- 
rocious of the populace were the 
accusers, judges, and executioners. 
The first step was, to demand the 
effects of the prisoners; the trial 
was short, and the execution of the 
sentence instantaneous. It was in 
very few instances that condemna- 
tion did not follow accusation: 
not only were men and women 
condemned on suspicion, but on 
account of their being related to 
suspected persons. Immediately 
on condemnation they were cut 
down with sabres at the door, 
amidst the cries of viva la liberté. 
_ The massacre ofthe Concergierie 
began nearly at the same time with 
that of the Abbey prison, Eight 
Swiss officers who were on their 
trial, and which had been just be- 
gun, with that of Major Bachman, 
and other persons waiting for their 
sentences, among whom probably 
were many guilty of crimes, to the 
number, in all, of 85, were mas- 
paeres! without any shew of legal 
wocess. Two hundred prisoners 
in the great Chatelet shared the 
same fate. Many of these were 
confined on suspicion of forgery, 
or passing false assignats ; others of 
crimes of a private nature; but 
none of them had been tried. Se- 
venty-three felons condemned to 
thegallies, confined in the Cloister 
of St. Bernard, were there mas- 
sacred, Forty-five unfortunate wo- 
men of the town were massacred in 
pital, or workhouse of the 
Ipetriere. At the prison of the 
otel de la Force, where the 
Massacre was begun on the 2d, 
[57 
and continued for some time at 
certain intervals, one hundred and 
sixty-four persons were assassinated. 
The prisoners who had been sent 
to Orleans on account of their at- 
tachment to ancient monarchy, 
now called treason, sedition, and 
incivism ; the Duke of Brissac, de- 
Lessart, the judge La Riviere, and 
others, to the number of 58, were 
conducted to Versailles, and there 
massacred in presence of the na- 
tional guards and principal officers, 
who did not make any attempt to 
save them. But the most horrible, 
aswellasthe last ofall the massacres 
of September, was that of the Bi- 
cetre, both a prison and an hospital, 
where the criminal, the sick, the 
wounded and the insane, were all 
shut up together. Here the pri- 
soners, inspired with some hopes 
perhaps,’ from the greatness of 
their numbers, or at least being 
certain of their fate, with the reso- 
lution of despair, determined to 
make resistance, though in irons; 
and prepared, as wellas they could, 
for their defence. The assailants 
aware of this, played on them with 
cannon charged with grape-shot, as 
they ran from one side of the dif- 
ferent courts, in which they were 
confined to another. When they 
were no longer formidable for their 
numbers, they were shot with fire- 
arms, by way of diversion, ‘The 
massacre of prisoners was continued 
night and day, without interrup- 
tion, for a week. 
To enumerate the various cir- 
cumstances thataggravated the hor- 
ror of these crimes, and opened 
new and humiliating prospects of 
human nature, would require vo- 
lume on volume. Nor are these 
wanting; for it was not possi- 
ble that this subject, so painfully 
interesting, should be passed over 
in 
