him to go to bed, and endeavour to obtain a little reft. The king complied with his requeft, and enjoyed a calm, undisturbed repofe, till five the next morning, when he was awakened according to his order. He then rofe, was drefled, and retired to his clofet, till an altar was prepared, and the neceffary arrangements made for the a&t of devotion he was about to perform, for the last time. At feven he heard mafs, and received the facrament with the most profound devotion. It was then fuggefted to him, that he had promifed another interview to his family; but the king determined to spare himfelf and them the agony of repeating fuch a fcene; and therefore contented himself with defiring, that his most affectionate adieus and final recommendation to Heaven's protection, might be delivered to them.

All Paris had been under arms fince five o'clock, while the found of drums, the noife of arms, the clatter of horses, and the paffage of cannon, were diftinctly heard in the Tower. At nine the buftle increased, when the doors were thrown open with violence, and Santerre appeared, attended by ten gend'armes,who difpofedthemfelves in two lines. On his informing the king, who came from his clofet, on hearing the noife, that he was come to conduct him to the fcaffold, his majefly asked only a few minutes, when he re-entered the clofet, and falling on his knees before his confeffor, received his laft benediction. He then threw open the door, and, with a firm voice, faid to Santerre, let us be gone. M. Edgeworth, who detergained not to abandon the king

in his laft moments, followed him. In the fecond court of the Temple ftood the carriage which was provided for the occafion, and two men, of a very favage and ferocious appearance, food at the door. One of them entered it as the guard approached, the king followed with M. Edgeworth, and the other gend'arme placed himfelf by his comrade. From the troubled and fierce afpect of these men, M. Edgeworth fufpected, and as it afterwards appeared, with fome foundation, that they were placed there to affaffinate the king in the coach, if there had been any attempt to refcue him. During the pailage from the Temple to the place of the revolution, formerly called the place of Louis XV. where he was to be murdered, he read, with the utmoft devotion, fuch prayers and pfalms as were beft fuited to his fituation. When the carriage ftopped at the fcaffold, the king immediately defcended from it; and having thrown off his coat, was about to afcend the fcaffold, when the executioners feized his hands, in order to tie them behind him. As he was not prepared for this last infult, he appeared difpofed to re; pel it, and his countenance already beamed with indignation; but M. Edgeworth, fenfible that refiftance would be vain, and might expofe the royal fufferer to outrages more violent, faid to him, "Sire, this added humiliation is another circumfiance in which your majefty's fufferings refemble thofe of that Saviour who will foon be your recompence." Thefe words foftened him at once, and he presented his hands to the murderous attendants; and they tied them with fo much force, as to call forth an

other

other remonftrance from the king. He now mounted the fcaffold, and, as M. Edgeworth followed him, he boldly exclaimed, with the fervent animation of his holy zeal, "Offspring of St. Louis, afcend to heaven." The king, bound and disfigured as he was, now advanced with a firm ftep to that part of the fcaffold which faced the palace, and, requesting the drums to ceafe, was inftantly obeyed. He then addreffed the people in a tone of voice loud enough to be heard in the garden of the Thuilleries, "Frenchmen. I die innocent of all the crimes which have been imputed to me. I forgive my enemies; I implore God, from the bottom of my heart, to pardon them, and not to take vengeance on the French nation for the blood about to be fhed." He was proceeding, when Santerre, who was on horfeback near the fcaffold, made a fignal for the drums to beat, when the minifters feized their victim, and the horrid murder was compleated. When the king's head was fevered from the body, one of the executioners held it up by the hair, dancing at the fame time round the fcaffold, with the moft favage exultation, and the fhouts of vive la nation, vive la repubque, feemed to applaud the execrable deed. The body was conveyed in a cart to the church-yard of Saint Madelaine, and thrown into a grave, which was inftantly filled with quick lime, and a guard placed over it till the corpfe was confumed. Thus did the French nation, who had endured the cruelties of Louis XI. the treachery of Charles IX. and the tyranny of Louis XIV. condemn and execute for the pretended crimes of cruelty, trea

chery, and tyranny, the moft mild, juft, and humane prince, that ever fat on the throne of France. As long as the world remains, or, at leaft, fo long as men read the hiftory of what has happened in it, the convention will be feverely reproached for the injuftice, inhumanity, and impolicy of putting their king to death. None of the charges which, for the fake of form, were brought against him, had any foundation, either in law or in fact. The king had acted as he had right to do, previous to the acceptance of the conftitution; and after that, he was the only man in the kingdom who had remained faithful to it.

It is not only a circumstance formed to infpire us with admira-. tion of Louis XVI. but it is a phanomenon, which muft excite aftonifhment, that, among the great number of his fervants and of his friends, as well as thousands of people, who had the opportunities of being acquainted with his conduct from his earlieft youth; there were none to produce one arbitrary act or accufation against him. Even when the extravagance of the court was confidered and examined by the constituent assembly, the waile of public money fell infinitely fhort of what had been afferted by the enemies of the court. In fact, it never appeared, that Louis XVI. was, from inclination or temper, a diffipator of his treafures: but the fame goodness of heart which had made him facrifice every thing to the fear of fhedding blood, in his latter days, had led him in other parts of his reign into the unfortunate and ruinous habit of paying the debts of princes and other perions of his court. At

the

the fame time the fentiment that occafioned this application of public money, and the good intentions which accompanied it, will, in fome degree, exculpate him in every generous and humane mind. What would have been refused to support diffipation, was granted to pay needy creditors, or to relieve from inconvenience and diftrefs thofe whom he affectionately loved. Had the princes of the house of Bourbon been guided by the fame principles with their illuftrious chief, he would not have loft his life in a revolution which their conduct had accelerated; or had the ftrength and energy of his mind been equal to his benevolence, he would have checked and controuled the caufes that produced the fatal cataftrophe.

Those who tried Louis XVI. for treason were themselves traitors; for they had betrayed the nation. They accufed him of tyranny and defpotifm, when they and their coadjutors alone were the tyrants and defpots of the people: they accufed him of fhedding innocent blood; when, in a few hours, they immolated to their own ambition and revenge more victims than there had fallen criminals under the severity of the law, during the whole reign of the king. Refpecting the cruel treatment of Louis, during his confinement, as well as the mock trial by which he was brought to the fcaffold, there is but one opinion among all ranks of people in every part of Europe: but it is not in general fo well known, by what methods his enemies contrived to lull all France; and particularly the inhabitants of Paris, into a kind of ftupor, till it was too late to prevent the execuVOL. XXXV.

tion of this fanguinary project. The ruling party in the affembly, in the clubs, and at the Hotel de Ville, were not without their apprehenfions. The majority of France, it was well known, not only deprecated any violence being committed against the king, but difapproved of the 10th of August, and all the machinations which followed. The murder of the king therefore might have ferved as a fignal for the majority to break forth, who, by uniting in one fingle point, might have crufhed their adverfaries. To prevent, therefore, fo dangerous a point of re-union, the affembly difcuffed the question in a way which made the gene rality of people believe, that imprifonment or exile would be the utmost extent of their vengeance. The king had long been a prisoner, and the formality, by a pretended procefs of law, of confirming his imprisonment did not appear to be a fubject for alarm, as it refpected his life; and as for exile, as the ftate of things then was, even royalifts themselves might confider it as an advantage. The trial of Louis, therefore, was fo conducted, as by presenting these two kinds of punishment to the public attention, the fentence of death did not appear to be an object of apprehenfion, till the trial drew near to its conclufion, and then the precipitate execution of the fentence prevented the poffibility of an effort on the part of the departments of France.

The next object of the Jacobins was to calm the fears, and lull the fufpicions of the people of Paris, refpecting the fate of the king: and both these purposes were affected by the ufual mode of em-. Q ploying

ploving their arts to infpire hope, and intructing their emiflaries to propagate the idea, that more was to be dreaded from oppofing them, than from fuffering them to proceed in their own way, and without obftruction. At the fame time we are by no means confident that the people of Paris would have rescued their king, even if they had been certain at the commencement of his trial that he would have been fentenced to die. For there could not furely be any reafon to apprehend refiftance from those who had been perfectly paflive in the tyrannic proceedings of Auguft, and the maffacres of September; and were daily fubmitting to unparalleled oppreffions. Yet Petion, and the conductors of this horrid tranfaction, were anxious to make affurance doubly fure; and it was circulated with no common art throughout Paris, that it was intended to conduct the king to the fcaffold, merely to imprefs the monarchs of Europe with a proper awe for the fovereignty of the French people. Befides, the favage conductors of this atrocious proceeding had given orders, that, on the least attempt in favour of fallen majesty, the king thould be inftantly facrificed; fo that from the abfolute certainty that this commiflion would be executed on the one hand, and the hopes which the friends of the king had been artfully induced to entertain on the other, they were fecure of attaining the confunimation of their bloody withes. The people of Paris may offer fome excufe for their calm endurance, as it appears, of fuch a crime. But the moment fucceeded, when they thould have been arouted from their ftupor, and

of

have awakened into vengeance: nor will all the refinement of Jacobin cunning wipe away the eternal ftain of cowardice, which their fubfequent and tame fubmiffion to the murderers Louis has fixed upon them. It has indeed been afferted with fome degree of confidence, and the opinion has had its fupporters, that the king himself had been perfuaded that he thould not be put death. There is, however, no reafon, at least that we have been able to difcover, to induce us to believe that he received any fuch intimation. But be that as it may, he does not appear to have cherished any delufive hope, even for an inftant; while the calm and refigned fpirit which he manifested, to the laft moment of his life, incontrovertibly prove, that he was not influenced by the alternate operations of hope and fear; and that he was not agitated by thofe doubts and emotions which never fail to accompany a state of doubt and fufpenfe. This devoted monarch confidered himself from the earliest period of his imprifonment as beyond any redemption, but that which was purchased for him in common with the reft of mankind, by the faviour of the world.

The injuftice of his fentence has never been doubted for a moment, by any reflecting mind. It is impoffible to deceive mankind by denominating Louis a traitor and a tyrant: it is impoffible to prove, that there were any grounds for his condemnation: it is impoffible to prevent the whole civilized world from perceiving the contrast between the magnanimous refignation of an innocent victim, and the ferocious ambition of his accusers

and

and affaffins.

This action alone proves that kings can be virtuous and republicans unjuft. It was impoffible to impute the crime of the king's death to the mad effervefcence, or rage of the moment: it could not be affigned to the frenzy of patriotifm: the authors of it therefore were 'forced, as it were, to avow it as their voluntary act, and to hold forth to the disguft and execration of all Europe the measure of their iniquity.

Louis has been blamed by fome, whofe zeal has outrun their reflection, for humiliating himself as he did before the national convention. When he found himself at the bar of that affenibly, he fhould, in their opinion, have declared that he had nothing to answer to revolted fubjects; and that he acknowledged no judge but God alone. Alas! what would fuch a declaration have availed him before a tribunal, composed of the moft wicked, profligate, and favage men in the world. Nor can we fuppofe for a moment that it would have faved him from the fate to which the Jacobins had, in fome way or other, devoted him; while it would have ftifled thofe proofs of his innocence, and for ever veiled that real greatnefs of mind, which his trial, fuch as it was, prefented to the view of lamenting and admiring Europe. Alas! if he had poffeffed fufficient energy and activity of mind, even to have made fuch a refiftance, and prefented himself in fuch a manner to his enemies, he would have repreffed by vigorous exertion the early attempts against his government, and would never have been reduced to the fatal extremity of being criminally accufed and condemued by any court in the world,

It was his want of this fpirit that rendered fruitless his flight from Paris, which his enemies have made a principal ground of attack on the character of this unhappy monarch. That he difapproved of the conftitution, in its then exifting ftate, there can be little doubt, in the minds of those who are acquainted with it. That he was a prifoner in his own palace is well known: that he was anxious to obtain a free conftitution for himfelf and his people, was a natural, as there is every reason to believe it was the fincere with of his heart; and no means appeared fo probable to produce fuccefs in fuch an important object, as removing himself to a fituation where he could act without fear, and be informed of the real wifhes of the French nation. But whatever advantage might be afforded to his enemies, by this natural though unsuccessful effort to free himfelf from fuch a degrading and fervile ftate, it remained with them but for moment, and could form no future charge against him. For even if it fhould be allowed that his departure from Paris were a crime, it was compleatly done away by the fubfequent offer of the crown on the part of the people, and the acceptance of the conflitution on the part of the king. This compact between them muft either be confidered as a mutual act of cblivion, which blotted out every charge of former offence; or the people ipontaneoutly placed a fceptre in the hands of a detected traitor and approved tyrant. But their future conduct decides the queftion: for in the month of July, in the following year, the nation continued to acknowledge that Louis was the

Q 2

monarch