Famous Affinities of History: The Romance of Devotion. Volume 2Orr, Lyndon
History
Famous Affinities of History: The Romance of Devotion. Volume 2
Orr, Lyndon
Biography; Love; Women -- Biography
Adam Lux rushed from the scene a man transformed. He bore graven upon
his heart neither the mob of tossing red caps nor the glare of the
sunset nor the blood-stained guillotine, but that last look from those
brilliant eyes. The sight almost deprived him of his reason. The
self-sacrifice of the only woman he had ever loved, even though she had
never so much as seen him, impelled him with a sort of fury to his own
destruction.
He wrote a bitter denunciation of the judges, of the officers, and of
all who had been followers of Marat. This document he printed, and
scattered copies of it through every quarter in Paris. The last
sentences are as follows:
The guillotine is no longer a disgrace. It has become a sacred altar,
from which every taint has been removed by the innocent blood shed
there on the 17th of July. Forgive me, my divine Charlotte, if I find
it impossible at the last moment to show the courage and the gentleness
that were yours! I glory because you are superior to me, for it is
right that she who is adored should be higher and more glorious than
her adorer!
This pamphlet, spread broadcast among the people, was soon reported to
the leaders of the rabble. Adam Lux was arrested for treason against
the Republic; but even these men had no desire to make a martyr of this
hot-headed youth. They would stop his mouth without taking his life.
Therefore he was tried and speedily found guilty, but an offer was made
him that he might have passports that would allow him to return to
Germany if only he would sign a retraction of his printed words.
Little did the judges understand the fiery heart of the man they had to
deal with. To die on the same scaffold as the woman whom he had
idealized was to him the crowning triumph of his romantic love. He gave
a prompt and insolent refusal to their offer. He swore that if released
he would denounce his darling's murderers with a still greater passion.
In anger the tribunal sentenced him to death. Only then he smiled and
thanked his judges courteously, and soon after went blithely to the
guillotine like a bridegroom to his marriage feast.
Adam Lux! Spirit courtship had been carried on silently all through
that terrible cross-examination of Charlotte Corday. His heart was
betrothed to hers in that single gleam of the setting sun when she
bowed beneath the knife. One may believe that these two souls were
finally united when the same knife fell sullenly upon his neck and when
his life-blood sprinkled the altar that was still stained with hers.
NAPOLEON AND MARIE WALEWSKA
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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