Robert Merry's Museum, Vol. VIII, July to December, 1844Various
General
Robert Merry's Museum, Vol. VIII, July to December, 1844
Various
Children's literature -- Periodicals
She was at once seized and committed to prison. We will again quote
from her letter to Barbaroux. “I expected to have been instantly
put to death, but some men, truly courageous, preserved me from
the excusable rage of those I had rendered unhappy. As I really
preserved my presence of mind, I felt hurt at the exclamations of some
women, but those who save their country think nothing of the cost.
May peace be established as soon as I wish it! For these two days I
have enjoyed a delicious state of mental repose. The happiness of my
country constitutes mine; there is no act of self-devotion which does
not overpay in pleasure, the pain of resolving to adopt it. I never
hated but one single being, and I have demonstrated how violent that
hatred was. But there are thousands whom I love with more warmth than
I hated him. A lively imagination and a feeling heart promise but a
stormy life; I beg those who may regret my fate to think of this, and
they will rejoice at seeing me enjoy repose in the Elysian fields with
Brutus and a few of the ancients. As for the moderns, there are few
real patriots, who know how to die for their country; they are almost
all selfish. What a people to form a republic! I am exceedingly well
accommodated in my prison; the jailors are the best kind of people in
the world; to keep away _ennui_ they have placed soldiers in my room.
I have no objection to make to this by day, but by night it is not so
pleasant. I have complained of the indecency, but no one has thought
fit to attend to my remonstrance.... My trial comes on to-morrow at
eight; probably at noon, according to the Roman phrase, _I shall have
lived_. I cannot say how I shall encounter my last moments; I have no
need to affect insensibility, for I never yet knew the fear of death,
and never loved life but in proportion to its possible utility.”
On the 17th of July she was put on trial, and avowed the fact and all
the circumstances, alleging, as justification, that she considered
Marat a criminal already convicted by public opinion, and that she had
a right to put him to death. She added, that she did not expect to have
been brought to trial, but to have been delivered up to the rage of the
populace, torn to pieces, and that her head, borne on a pike before the
corpse of Marat, would have served as a rallying point to Frenchmen, if
any still existed worthy of the name.
She was led from the place of trial to that of execution. On the way
she displayed a firmness and tranquillity which even awed into silence
the _poissardes_, those furies of the guillotine, who in general
pursued the victim to death with execrations and reproaches. She
submitted to her fate with the same composure that had marked all her
previous conduct.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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