HIS EXECUTION. 245 



soiled by the presence and by the blood of him whom they 

 called a great criminal. Upon their demand (I had 

 almost said their orders), the scaffold was taken down 

 again, and carried piecemeal into one of the fosses, where 

 it was put up afresh. Bailly remained the stern witness 

 of these frightful preparations, and of these infernal 

 clamours. Not one complaint escaped from his lips. 

 Rain had been falling all the morning ; it was cold ; it 

 drenched the body, and especially the bare head, of the 

 venerable man. A wretch saw that he was shivering, 

 and cried out to him, " Thou tremblest, Bailly" " / am 

 cold, my friend" mildly answered the victim. These 

 were his last words. 



Bailly descended into the moat, where the executioner 

 burnt before him the red flag of the 17th July; he then 

 with a firm step mounted the scaffold. Let us have the 

 courage to say it, when the head of our venerable col- 

 league fell, the paid witnesses whom this horrid execution 

 had assembled on the Champ de Mars burst into infamous 

 acclamations. 



I had announced a faithful recital of the martyrdom of 

 Bailly ; I have kept my word. I said that I should ban- 

 ish many circumstances without reality, and that the 

 drama would thus become less atrocious. If I am to trust 

 your aspect, I have not accomplished the second part of 

 my promise. The imagination perhaps cannot reach be- 

 yond the cruel facts on which I have been obliged to 

 dilate. You ask what I can have retrenched from former 

 relations, whilst what remains is so deplorable. 



The order for execution addressed by Fouquier Tin- 

 ville to the executioner has been seen by several persons 

 now living. They all declare that if it differs from the 

 numerous orders of a similar nature that the wretch sent 



