| HIS EXECUTION. 243 
to researches in and examination of old chronicles, is ap- 
plied to making extracts from the registers relative to the 
French Revolution, we shall certainly see many other 
hideous circumstances that revolt the soul, disappear from 
our contemporary history. Look at the massacres of 
September! The historians most in vogue report the 
number of victims that fell in that butchery to have been 
from six to twelve thousand; whilst a writer who has 
lately taken the trouble to analyze the prison registers in 
the gaoler’s books, cannot make the whole amount to one 
thousand. Even this number is very large; but, for my 
part, I thank the author of this recent publication for hay- 
ing reduced the number of assassinations in September 
to less than a tenth part of what had been generally 
admitted. 
When the discussion which I have here undertaken be- 
comes known to the public, it will be seen how many and 
how important are the retrenchments to be made from 
that lugubrious page of our history. Another important 
circumstance may be appreciated, which appears to me to 
arise from all these facts. After having weighed my 
proofs, every one I hope will join me in seeing that the 
wretches around the scaffold of Bailly were but the refuse 
of the population, fulfilling for pay the part that had been 
assigned them by three or four wealthy cannibals. 
The sentence pronounced against Bailly by the Revo- 
lutionary Tribunal was to be executed on the 12th of 
November, 1793. The reminiscences recently published 
by a fellow-prisoner of our colleague, the reminiscences 
of M. Beugnot, will enable us to penetrate into the Con- 
ciergerie, on the morning of that inauspicious day. 
Bailly had risen early, after having slept as usual, the 
sleep of the just. He took some chocolate, and conversed 
