Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 01.pdf/97

 78

are named Dubosc, Vidal, Durochat, and Roussy. Durochat, under the name of Laborde, took a place in the mail carriage by the side of the courier. The others de parted from Paris on the 27th of April on horseback. He, Courriol, joined them an hour after their departure at Charenton. They dined and took coffee at Montgeron. The next morning the five returned to Paris about five o'clock. Courriol took the horses to the house of Aubrey. Roussy and Duro chat planned the enterprise. The sabre and spur belonged to Dubosc, who went back to get his sabre at Lieursaint; the other sabre found in the road belonged to Roussy. It was Dubosc and Vidal who were walking in Lieursaint on foot." This trial had absorbed public attention. A great number of persons believed in the innocence of Lesurques. It was known that Courriol persisted in his protestations. A petition was made to the directory, and that body examined with the greatest care all the evidence as developed at the trial, and all the arguments brought to bear against the judgment. The result of the examina tion was a determination to submit the matter to the decision of the council of five hundred. This council finally made a report. "The council cannot exercise a judicial power; it does not wish to exercise it. It is not our province to determine whether Le surques is guilty or innocent. He has been judged and properly condemned." The council refused to interfere, and the last hope of Lesurques was gone. When there was no longer hope, Lesurques courageously prepared for death. He bid his wife farewell, and embraced for the last time his three children. The evening before the fatal day he cut his own hair, and took the locks and addressed them to his wife and children. To his wife he wrote this letter : — "When you read this I shall have ceased to exist; the cruel knife will have cut the thread of that life which I have consecrated to you with so

much joy. But such is fate; one cannot avoid it. I am about to be judicially murdered. Ah! May I submit to my fate with the courage worthy of a true man. ... I send you some locks of my hair; preserve them, and when my children are older give them to them. They are all I have to leave them. I bid you an eternal farewell. My last thought will be of you and my unfortunate children." This letter was addressed to the Citizenness Widow Lesurques. To his friends he wrote : — "The truth has not made itself known. I perish a victim to error. May I hope that you will al ways preserve for my wife and my children the friendship you have shown for me, and that you will aid them under all circumstances? Receive my last farewell." Before leaving the conciergerie he wrote to Dubosc, and entreated his judges to insert the letter in their records : — "You in whose place I am about to die, be satisfied with the sacrifice of my life. If you are ever made accountable to human justice, remem ber my three children overwhelmed with shame, their mother in despair, and do not prolong the misfortunes caused by this sad resemblance." The day for the execution of the sentence arrived. It was Oct. 30, 1796. Lesurques asked to be dressed in white, an external sign of his innocence. In the court of the prison he met his two unhappy companions who were to die with him, Courriol and Bernard. Bernard, more dead than alive, hardly realized the situation; they were obliged to place him in the cart as though he were a dead body. Courriol preserved all his courage. Scarcely had Lesurques mounted the cart by his side, than pointing him out to the crowd Courriol cried, " I am guilty, but Le surques is innocent." All the way, even to the very foot of the scaffold, he did not cease repeating, "I am guilty, but Lesurques is innocent." A few moments later Lesurques mounted the scaffold with a firm step, pardoned for the last time his judges, and as M. Salques