24
MEMOIRS OF THE SANSONS.
patroness!" my grandfather observed that she
was not like her, and that should fate ever lead
her before a king, she would not enact the part
of Jeanne d'Arc but rather that of Agnes Sorel.
Jeanne was the daughter of a dressmaker
named Beeu, alias Cautigny, who after Jean-
ne's birth married one Rançon de Vaubernier,
clerk of tbe customs, on condition that the
child should be considered by him as his own.
My grandfather had good reason to believe that
her real father was no other than the Abbé
Gomart. He styled her his niece, because his
position did not allow of his recognizing her as
his child. For a long time he spoke of her in
terms of the strongest affection. Charles Henri
Sanson was already in love with her, and he
listened to the old man with eager ears; and on
more than one occasion he nearly betrayed his
secret. For Mdlle. Vaubernier the executioner
of Paris was still the Chevalier de Longval; and
he could easily maintain his incognito, consider-
ing that uncle and niece saw very little or noth-
ing of each other, and Charles Henri was so
much under the fascinating influence of the
future Du Barry that he never revealed his
avocations.
Jeanne was not only gifted with ideal beauty;
she was supremely pleasing and graceful. It is
not my intention to retrace her biography; it is
quite enough for me to have to dwell on the
last chapter of it. I shall not, therefore, follow
her in her life of adventures and licentiousness,
which culminated in her connections with a
king. When she became Louis XV.'s favorite
Charles Henri Sanson had long ago lost sight of
her. The Abbé Gomart had ceased to speak of
his daughter. She had vainly attempted to
conceal from him her erratic existence. When
she became a royal mistress, she remembered
her father, and thought, no doubt, that he
would readily make the most of her equivocal
elevation. Important personages went to see
Gomart, and offered him a bishopric; but it was
all in vain. The old priest was not to be allured.
He declined every offer; and to the end of his
life he remained in his pious retreat, which he
only left to discharge his fuuetions and to sit
down once a week at the executioner's table.
CHAPTER XVII.
ADVENT  OP  CHARLES HENRI  SANSON.
It was in the month of January 1754 that
Jean-Baptiste Sanson felt the first effects of the
malady which deprived him of the use of his
limbs. His eldest son, Charles Henri, then
fifteen years of age, was tall and strong, and
with a" little assistance capable of taking his
father's place. But it was the seeond time that
the duties of executioner devolved on a minor
who might be regarded as wanting in experi-
ence; and this led" to a contest between us and
those who wished to gaiu possession of the
appanage of our family.
As soon as my great-grandfather's illness was
known, aud although, thanks to Charles Henri's
assistance, there had been no interruption in
the discharge of the executioner's functions, all
sorts of intrigues were resorted to with the sole
object of obtaining the office.
It seemed as if Marthe Dubut's life was only
preserved in order to see that the inheritance of
our functions should be retained in the family.
She solicited them on her grandson's behalf;
and when the procureur-général expressed a
doubt that so young a man could discharge the
duties of executioner, she assured him that
Charles Henri was older than his years. The
magistrate told her to bring the young man with
her on the next day. Marthe Dubut returned
accompanied by my grandfather, whose vigorous
constitution and precocious gravity completely
satisfied the procureur. He, however, declined
tc invest him officially, and Charles Henri was
merely authorized to take his father's place
until experience should prove his capacity.
This provisional office lasted four-and-twenty
years, and it was only when Jean-Baptiste died
in 1778 that my grandfather became execu-
tioner en titre.
Just as Charles Henri and his mother entered
the procureur's office they met two men who
bad been talking with the magistrate. They
retired hurriedly, and the voice of the pro-
cureur was heard saying to a police officer:
" See these fellows to their lodgings, and if
they are not off in two hours, arrest them and
take them to the Chatelet,"
The two men seemed embarrassed as they
passed near Marthe Dubut; but the latter
looked at them steadfastly, saying to ber son:
"My child, these are ungrateful relatives of
jours; they came here to deprive you of your
father's inheritance. They have had an un-
unfavorable reception, it seems. When you
see them again after my death do not forget the
ill-will they bear you."
These two men, father and son, were, in fact,
connected with us by the eternal union of exe-
cutioners' families between each other. They
were provincial executioners; and, hearing of
my great-grandfather's condition, they had come
to Paris to secure his situation. They had been
foolish enough to offer the procureur a large
sum of money if he would favor them. Their
attempt at corruption failed, .and they retired
in dudgeon, but glad to be let off so easily.
I will not quote the name of these disap-
pointed competitors, as they were connected
with my family, and out of deference to their
descendants, who still bear that name. The
same thing occurred to me during my seven
years of service. When it was known that I had
but little wish to retain an office which I hated,
and which I could hand down to no son, all
kinds of machinations were devised to obtain
my dismissal or to make sure of my inheritance.
Were not such details below the reader's notice,
I could tel! a curious story on the matter, on
the ambition of those who wished to take
charge of our grim functions. But let us leave
this unpleasant subject, and return to Charles
Henri Sanson, who replaced his father during
four-and-twenty years before he took his official
title. Marthe Dubut died shortly afterward,
proudly conscious of having educated a numer-
ous posterity for the government of the scaffold.
Her death wrought a considerable change in
the habits of the house: Charles Jean-Baptiste
retired to the country with his wife, and Charles
Henri virtually became the head of the family.
His tenure of office was far longer than that of
any other of our race. We have seen him com-
mencing his career in the monstrous tortures
inflicted on Damiens as a punishment for an at-
tempted regicide; we shall soon find him com-
mitting a legal regicide. We have seen him
executing Lally and La Barre, the victims of
intrigue and fanaticism; we shall see him slay-
ing thousands of victims during the Terror. It
appears to me impossible to find in any country
and under any legislation a more complete in-
carnation of the executioner than my grand-
father, especially during the Revolution. As a
minister of popular reprisals, as the instrument
of revenge which had accumulated during ages
against the excesses of monarchy, he became
the principal member of the State. Royalty,
the Gironde, the Montagne successively per-
ished by his hands.
The latter part of the reign of Louis XV.
was not bloody ; Lally and La Barre were the
last victims of State and religion; and the
Court did not blend cruelty with vice: I only
find in my grandfather's notes the names of
common criminals of La Tournelle. The only
circumstance worthy of notice regarding these
cases was, that all these criminals appealed to
Parliament against sentences passed by inferior
jurisdictions, and that these appeals usually led
to the infliction of severer penalties. Seldom
did inferior courts inflict the punishment of the
wheel; the gibbet was the instrument of death
they generally resorted to. Now when the Par-
liament quashed their decisions it was only to
substitute the wheel for the gibbet. In a list of
obscure crimes I find a case which is worth
mentioning. A horse-dealer, named Chabert,
had an only son, who was to take his father's
business after his death. The young man, how-
ever was a debauchee; and not only did he
spend his time in idleness or pleasure, but he
impatiently waited for tbe time when by his
father's death he would take possession of a
small fortune. Amongst his ordinary boon
companions was one Cellier, who became his
confidant and accomplice in the horrible design
young Chabert was meditating. Cellier was
perverse and weak, and he was easily persuaded
by Chabert to murder the father of the latter.
They fixed the day and hour. Chabert gave
Cellier a long knife which he had sharpened
himself; and as Chabert the elder was returning
home between eight and nine o'clock at night,
Cellier struck him twice with this weapon. A
struggle took place between the murderer and
his victim; the son came to the assistance of his
accomplice, and both managed to escape. As
to Chabert the elder, he fell and died on the
spot.
This audacious crime had been committed
near the Palais de Justice. The judges of the
Bailliage took immediate steps for the capture
of the assassins. Chabert and Cellier were
easily discovered and arrested, and on Decem-
ber 12, 1774, they were both sentenced to die on
the wheel. The Parliament confirmed the sen-
tence on the same day, and handed over the
culprits to the criminal lieutenaut for its imme-
diate execution.
The rapidity with which the whole affair was
brought to a culmination shows how abhorred
by public conscience were such crimes as Cha-
bert's. Parricide at the time was very rarely
committed. I do not think Charles Henri San-
son had been called upon before this to inflict
certain portions of the sentences, such as the
amputation of the hand and the burning of the
body. Executions were less frequent than one
might think during our professional experience.
The punishments which my grandfather had to
see to were chiefly flogging and marking, usu-
ally inflicted on thieves and forgers. Our mod-
ern laws, in France at least, have abolished such
corporal punishments. Marking and the pillory
disappeared one after the other, although they
were still in force in my time. _ Mutilation,
which always preceded the execution of parri-
cides, has fallen into disuse. Cremation of
corpses and scattering the ashes to the wind
nowadays would only disgrace justice. Only
the scaffold, on wliich simple and rapid death
is inflicted, remains; and—may I be allowed to
say so?—I am convinced that its days are num-
bered.
CHAPTER XVIII,
TnE  NECKLACE AFFAIR.
This affair is so well known that to give a
detailed account of it is, I think, useless. I
will, therefore, limit myself to a brief summary
of the facts which caused the arrest of the
Cardinal de Rohan, M. de Cagliostro, M. Re-
taux de Villette, and Mdlle. Oliva, and brought
Mdme. Jeanne de Valois in contact with the
executioner.
One day Madame de Boulainvilliers, wife of
the Provost of Paris, met in a village in Bur-
gundy a little girl, who held out her hand, say-
ing, " My beautiful lady, for the love of God,
give something to the descendant of the former
Kings of France."
These words surprised Mdme. -de Boulainvil-
liers; she asked the child to explain her singu-
lar way of begging. The curate of the village,
who was passing by, told Madame that the
child said the truth, and that she was the lineal
descendant of Henri de Saint-Rémy, bastard of
Henry II. and of Nicole de Savigny.
Madame de Boulainvilliers also heard that
the child was an orphan, and that she lived on
public charity. She took her to Paris; her
genealogy was examined, and it was discovered
that the little Jeanne de Valois, her brother, and
her sister, were really scions of the old royal
stock. A petition was presented to the Queen
and to M. de Maurepas by the Duke de Brancas-
Cériste. Pensions were granted to the three
children. The boy entered the navy; he became
a lieutenant, and died under the name of Baron
de Saint-Rémy de Valois.
In 1780 Jeanne de Valois married a member
of Monsieur's private guard, Comte de la
Motte. This officer was poor; his wife's por-
tion consisted of a small pension; and this was
insufficient for the ambition of La Motte and
his wife. Madame de la Motte was considered
to be a very beautiful woman; she was witty
and attractive, and expressed herself with ele-
gance and facility. She became acquainted
with the Cardinal de Rohan, who lent her
money and protected her. It is difficult to say
whether the prelate's generosity was quite dis-
interested; but there is reason to believe that it
was not, especially as he lent Madame de la
Motte, without any plausible reason, a sum
amounting to one "hundred and twenty thou-
sand livres, previous to the necklace affair.
Howbeit Mdme. de la Motte enjoyed the inti-
macy of the fastidious prelate, and discovered
his secret aspirations. She found out that his
desire was to have over the Queen, who, it is
said, exercised a sovereign domination over her
husband, the same influence as Cardinal Mazarin
had had with Anne d'Autriche. She flattered
his hobby, and used it as the basis of her
future fortunes.
The almost stupid simplicity through which
M. de Rohan fell a victim to the snare of this
wily woman will afford an idea of the prelate's
intellectual caliber. Mdme. de la Motte per-
suaded the Cardinal that she was on terms of
intimacy with the Queen; that, conscious as