mai^^^M

38
MEMOIRS OF THE SANSONS.
therefore became the object of peculiar respect
to these three poor creatures, who had no hope,
save in him, and who lived solely through his
agency, Morning and evening the pious souls
made wishes for his prosperity aud salvation.
Their gratitude, being, as it were, rekindled
every day, was naturally attended with a feeling
of curiosity which became more and more in-
tense. The circumstances that had accompanied
the appearance of the stranger formed the usual
subject of their conversations. They made a
thousand conjectures, and the occupation there-
by furnished to them was an additional boon.
They were resolved not to allow him to shirk
their friendship when he returned according to
his promise, to celebrate the melancholy anni-
versary of the death of Louis XVI. Tlie long-
expected evening came at last.
At midnight the heavy step was heard again
on the old wooden staircase. The room had
been prepared for his reception. The altar was
in its place. This time the sisters hurried to
the door before the stranger had time to re.ach
the top landing, and lighted his way. Mdlle.
de Charost even descended a few steps, thus
sooner to catch sight of her benefactor.
" Come," said she, iu a moved and affection-
ate voice.    "Come; you are expected."
The man raised his head, threw a dark look
at the nun, and did not answer. She felt as if
a dress of ice enveloped her, and was silent.
The stranger entered, and at his sight gratitude
and curiosity expired in every heart. He was
perhaps less cold, taciturn, and gloomy than he
had at first appeared to these beings, whose ex-
alted sentiments yearned to launch into friend-
ship. The three poor prisoners understood
that this man wished to remain a stranger
to them, and they submitted. The priest
thought he detected a faint smile on the stran-
ger's face when he saw the preparations that
had been made for his reception. He heard
mass, prayed, and disappeared, after answering
by a few words of negative politeness to Mdlle.
de Charost's invitation to share a small repast
she had prepared.
The expiatory mass was mysteriously cele-
brated in the garret until public worship was
re-established by the First Consul. When the
nuns and the abbé could reappear in the world
without fear, they saw the unknown no more.
The "Unknown" was, as I said before,
Charles Henri Sanson, my grandfather, who
sought, by a pious ceremony, to pacify his
troubled conscience. Our family watched over
these poor prescripts until the end of the Reign
of Terror, and the abbé and sisters never knew
the name of their protector; for the sequel of
the story related by Balzac (which 1 have
omitted) "is not true, and was only written for
the wants of fiction.
The relic offered to the old priest by Charles
Sanson was the handkerchief the King held on
reaching the scaffold. He had used it more
than once, on the way from prison, to wipe the
perspiration from his forehead, and a few drops
of blood had stained it after the head had fallen.
The different garments worn by the unfortunate
monarch at the time of his death were carefully
preserved by my grandfather. He was, how-
ever, unable to withhold some articles from his
assistants, who, as I was told, sold them for
large sums.
My father asked for and obtained the shoes
and the collar buckle; and he was only induced
to part with them by an event whicli is worth
relating. A few days after the King's death a
horseman, followed by a servant, rang at out-
door, and asked for the master of the house.
My grandfather was out; so my father received
the visitor. The latter was a man of fine ap-
pearance, in the flower of age; he was dressed
in black, and the Bourbonian cast of his features
strongly reminded my father of Louis XVI.
" Sir!" said the new comer, who appeared
much moved, " I am told that you possess dif-
ferent objects which once belonged to the late
King. As I suppose you wish to sell them, I
come to make you an offer."
"Sir," answered my father, somewhat net-
tled, " we have, as you say, kept a few articles
of apparel belonging to the late King, but we
owe no explanations to any one concerning the
use we intend to make of them; and I may as
well tell you at once that we do not propose to
part with them, at any price."
The visitor looked surprised.
" What! if I offered jou a princely ransom
for your prize------"
" We would not accept it."
While he was speaking, my father looked at-
tentively at the stranger, and the similarity of
his features and of those of Louis XVL struck
him again. His features were finer than the
unfortunate prince's, but it was the same aqui-
line nose, high forehead, and thick lips which
formed the typical signs of the race of the
Bourbons. The visitor glanced around the
room, and, seeing on the wall a very fine engrav-
ing of one of the last portraits of Louis XV.,
an expression of surprise and emotion appeared
on his countenance. This engraving, dated
1733, was due to Dauile, one of the celebrated
engravers of the time.
" If you knew," said he, "on what grounds
I ask for these melancholy souvenirs, perhaps
you would not refuse to let me have them.
Let me inform you that 1 belong, by secret re-
lationship, to the family of the royal victim. I
am the son of the Kiug whose portrait I have
before me; I am usually styled the Abbé de
Bourbon."
My father looked at the engraving, and saw
that lis visitor bore a wonderful likeness to
Louis XV. The Abbé de Bourbon, as he was
called, was one of the illegitimate sons of this
voluptuous monarch, who were indeed far too
numerous to be legally recognized. Secretly
protected by Louis XVL, the young abbé had
been enabled to lead a semi-princely life. This
patronage had inspired deep gratitude in the
Abbé de Bourbon; and his desire to possess
some remembrance of his beloved protector was
but natural. My father could not resist his en-
treaties, and he gave him the shoes which the
King had used last, and his collar buckle. He
declined to accept any remuneration, and con-
sidered himself amply repaid by the abbé's pro-
fuse thanks.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE  LA ROUERIE  CONSPIRACY.
The tribunal instituted on August 10, short-
ly after the King's death, was replaced by the
" Revolutionary Tribunal," and the guillotine,
which for some days had remained bloodless,
was again in daily demaud. The executions
whicli took place then are not of sufficient im-
portance to be recorded in these Memoirs; and
no name worth mentioning occurs in my notes
up to the famous conspiracy of La Rouerie,
which aimed at nothing less than the overthrow
of the Republic.
The larger portion of the nobility had emi-
grated; but a goodly number of seigneurs still
remaiued iu France. These noblemen lived far
from each other in their castles and country-
seats, and watched with fear the progress of the
Revolution. They abhorred the new state of
things, and longed to take their revenge; but
fear kept them apart, and their separation pre-
vented them from conspiring against the Revo-
lutionists.
Curiously enough, it was an obscure indi-
vidual who undertook to bring together all
these elements which were hostile to the new-
regime, aud therewith to form in the west of
France a league sufficiently powerful to destroy ;
the young Republic. This man's name was
Tuffin de la Rouerie.
He was one of those bold and active indi- j
viduals who love adventure.    The beginning of
his career was very romantic.    He entered the j
army, and  after distinguishing himself as an j
officer, he became a Trappist.    But such a man
could not be content with wearing the cassock;
he left La Trappe, and took part in the Ameri-
can War of Independence.
On his return to France, he showed some
favor for the new ideas that were then spreading
like wildfire; the danger of the. King, however,
excited his imagination, and rekindled his luke-
warm loyalty. He went to Coblentz, aud pro-
posed to the princes to go and foment au insur-
rection in Brittany.
La Rouerie returned with a moderate sum of
money; and, with no help beyond his own in-
domitable will, he undertook to realize the plan
he had devised.
The record of his life would fill a volume,
during the year he employed in organizing the
conspiracy which extended over the whole of
Brittany, and which but for the death of its
originator would have become one of the most
gigantic ever recorded by history. He was
everywhere and nowhere; he was seen iu Jer-
sey, in London, in Coblentz, and a few days
after his steps were traced in the wilds of
Brittany.
The plot was his own work.    He confided his
secret  to no  intermediary;  he himself visited |
the most humble partisatais of royalty, raised
their courage, and stimuluted their zeal. He
showed them the King's palace invaded, the
royal family outraged, the King's head covered
wiih the red nightcap. He proved to them the
necessity of defending royalty by arms. If
age, infirmities, or sex prevented them from
joining the civil war, he very cleverly obtained
a year of their income for the benefit of the en-
terprise.
In the month of August 1792 the nets of the
conspiracy extended to all towns, villages, and
hamlets in Brittany, and La Rouerie was the
only man who held the strings of the plot. His
excessive prudence prevented the plot from
succeeding, aud saved France from great dan-
ger. The revolution of August 10 appalled La
Rouerie. Until then he had waited for a favor-
able opportunity. The Kiug was now a pris-
oner, the Prussians were in full retreat, and ho
began to fear that the time was past and that it •
was too late.
Sorrow, exitement, and, above all, the extra-
ordinary fatigues he had endured, had ruined
his health; his frame gave way-, and he sought
shelter at Lamballe; but suspicious faces having
been observed around the house where he was
concealed, he sought another refuge, after bury-
ing iu tlie garden all the papers he possessed;
and, under the name of Gosselin, he claimed the
hospitality of a Breton gentleman of the neigh-
borhood, M. Delamotte de Laguyomeiais. La
Rouerie now felt that he was dying. He re-
vealed his real name to his host, and did not
conceal the danger to wliich his generous hos-
pitality exposed him. Although the local au-
thorities had no knowledge of the extent of the
conspiracy, its existence was no secret to them.
Two of La Rouerie's agents, Latouche and Lal-
ligaud-Morillon, had sold to Danton the secrets
w'liich had been intrusted to them. A reward
had been offered for La Rouerie's apprehension.
The dying man stoically indicated to his host
the precautions he was to take iu order to con-
ceal his body and prevent it from being identi-
fied; and shortly afterward he expired.
M. de Laguyomeiais applied to a surgeon of
St. Servan, named Leniasson, with whom he
was acquainted. The latter disfigured La
Rouerie's corpse by numerous incisions, aud in
the following night the conspirator was depos-
ited in a neighboring wood, iu a hole full of
quicklime.
Unfortunately for M. de Laguyomerais, there
was a traitor among his servants; a certain
Chefty denounced him, and the remains of the
prescript were discovered. It was ascertained
that he had spent several days at Lamballe, at
Mdme de la Fauchais's house; and a search in
this lady's garden led to the discovery of the
papers which La Rouerie hail consigned to tbe
earth. La Rouerie had, however, destroyed
the list of his accomplices. But M. de Laguy-
omerais, his family- and his servants, the sur-
geon of St. Servan, and a few Breton gentlemen
were arrested, sent toParis, aud arraigned before
the Revolutionary Tribunal.
The trial began on August 8, aud lasted ten
days. The two sons of M. de Laguyomerais-
were discharged; M. de Laguyomerais himself,
and his wife, Marie Jeanne Micault ; his brother-
in-law, Mathurin Micault de Miuvil'.e; Mdme.
de la Fauchais; the Abbé Thébaut de Lacha-
venais, tutor of Laguyomerais' sons; Anne de
Pontavis, late officer in the Armagnac regi-
ment; Picot de Moelan: Locquer de Granville;,
and Gurge de Fontévieux, were sentenced to
death; and on August 18 they suffered their
fate with the greatest courage.
Shortly before the above affair, another re-
markable trial occurred. The Convention had
sent to the department of Jura two of its mem-
bers, Leonard Bourdon and Prost, with the
mission of watching the operation of recruiting..
Tilt two delegates had stopped at Orleans,
where an attempt was made to murder Bourdon.
The Convention, indignant at the treatment
offered to one of its members, called the muni-,
cipality of Orleans before it. Orleans was noted
for its lukewarm republicanism, and the Gov-
ernment deemed it necessary to make an ex-
ample; the municipality was suspended, and a
number of national guards who had attacked
Bourdon were arrested and brought before the
Revolutionary Tribunal. Four were acquitted,
and nine were sentenced to death.
My grandfather received Fouquier-Tinville's
injunction to be ready; but public opinion was
so strongly bent on clemency lhat Charles
Henri Sanson himself, who was rather skepticai
in such matters, did not think the execution
would take place. Petitions were presented to-
the Convention in favor of the culprits, but no.