Page:Englishmen in the French Revolution.djvu/229

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IN THE PROVINCES.
209

on trial at Paris, said: "As for my brother, he was with the rebels. He murdered patriots, and wanted to murder me. When he found there was no other hope for him, he came and threw himself into my arms; but he was my country's enemy, I performed a republican's duty and denounced him, and justice pronounced his fate."[1] Charles was guillotined at Angers, December 31st, 1793. He was twenty-eighty ears of age.

Jean Baptist O'Sullivan was a fencing master like his presumptive grandfather. In 1791 he was sub-lieutenant in a company of volunteers at Nantes. At the end of 1793 the infamous Carrier made him adjutant of Nantes, and he took part in Carrier's atrocities. According to Madame de la Rochejaquelein, John owed his life to his brother, four years his junior, being saved by him when captured by the Vendeans. She adds that after Charles's death he was a prey to remorse, fancied himself pursued by his brother's ghost, and stupefied himself by committing fresh crimes. His wife, a handsome and virtuous woman, reproached him with his baseness. Summoned to Paris as a witness against Carrier, he was himself placed in the dock. It was alleged that, dining with a party of men in a garden, he had boasted that when superintending the "noyades" he would distract a prisoner's attention by bidding him look at something on the

  1. What a subject for a thrilling drama!