add an anecdote which puts Charles Henry Sanson in an unexpected, and still more favourable light. A few days after the execution of the king, a newspaper, called 'Le Thermomètre du Jour, produced some invidious observations on the King's deportment on the scaffold, of the kind referred to in p. 6, ante. On seeing those observations, Sanson immediately addressed to the editor the following letter—the original has some faults of orthography, but the substance, besides settling an historical fact, does credit to Sanson's honesty and courage:—
"Paris, 20 Feb. 1793; 1st year of the Fr. Rep."Citizen,
"A short absence has prevented my sooner replying to your article concerning Louis Capet. But here is the exact truth as to what passed. On alighting from the carriage for execution, he was told that he must take off his coat; he made some difficulty, saying that they might as well execute him as he was. On [our] representation that that was impossible, he himself assisted in taking off his coat. He again made the same difficulty when his hands were to be tied, but he offered them himself when the person who accompanied him [his confessor] had told him that it was the last sacrifice [the Abbé Edgeworth had suggested to him that the Saviour had submitted to the same indignity]. Then he inquired whether the drums would go on beating as they were doing. We answered that we could not tell. And it was the truth. He ascended the scaffold, and advanced to the front, as if he intended to speak; but we again represented to him that the thing was impossible: he then allowed himself to be conducted to the spot, when he was attached to the instrument, and from which he exclaimed, in a loud voice, 'People, I die innocent!' Then, turning round to us, he said, 'Sir, I die innocent of all that has been imputed to me; I wis that my blood may cement the happiness of the French people!'
"These, citizen, were his last and exact words. The kind
