Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. V, October, 1850, Volume I.
General
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. V, October, 1850, Volume I.
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
Precisely at four o’clock the sombre cavalcade approached. Seated upon a
bench in a long cart, between two priests, sat the wretched victims of
retributive justice. The crucifix was incessantly exhibited to their view,
and presented to their lips to be kissed, by their ghostly attendants.
After a few minutes of silent and horrible preparation, the elder advanced
upon the platform of the guillotine. With livid aspect and quivering lips,
he gazed around in unutterable agony upon the sea of human faces; then
lifting his haggard eyes to heaven, he demanded pardon of God and the
people for the violation of the great prerogative of the former and the
social rights of the latter, and besought most earnestly the mercy of the
Judge into whose presence he was about to enter. In less than two minutes
both he and his companion were headless corpses, and in a quarter of an
hour no vestige, save a few remains of sawdust, was left of the terrible
drama that had been enacted. Soon, however, a confused murmur pervaded the
crowd—a report that the victim of cruelty and avarice had realized the
dread presentiment of his own mind, and justified the prediction contained
in the anonymous letter he had received. On inquiry, this was found to be
true. As the signal rung out for execution, the unhappy man, whom
twenty-two stabs of the dagger had failed to kill, expired in a paroxysm
of terror—adding one more to the many examples already upon record of the
fatal force of fear upon an excited imagination.
LADY ALICE DAVENTRY; OR, THE NIGHT OF CRIME. (FROM THE DUBLIN UNIVERSITY
MAGAZINE.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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