exclaims: "What, I conspire? I am deaf and blind." "Then you must have conspired in the dark," replied the pitiless tormentor. "Next." And so the farce went on, each of the prosecutor's grim pleasantries being applauded by the people, until at length Fouquier arose and announced that the hear ing was over. There was a fencing master among the prisoners, whose anger got the better of his discretion. " We have not been heard, villain. Take your wages," he shout ed, and seizing a leaden inkstand he hurled it at Fouquier's head. The aim was not good, but a good deal of the ink bespattered the prosecutor's face, whereat a voice cried : "Behold the fiend in his true colors, black as Satan." The fencing master was seized and bound. " Knave," cried Fouquier, " I have parried your thrust; you cannot parry mine." There was no waste of words in the jury room. The foreman simply laid his hand edgewise across his throat, making a motion suggestive of decapitation, his colleagues nodded, and the verdict was found. On their return to the tribunal, they declared the culpability of the accused, one and all, and the president pronounced the sentence of death. It is told that on more than one occasion the list of victims was added to by the dis traction of the husbands, wives, sweethearts and friends of the condemned. Themselves free they had quietly witnessed the trial of those so dear to them, hoping against hope for their escape, but on hearing the fatal de cree these distracted spectators sent up the defiant shout, " Vive le roi!" whereupon they were hustled before the prosecutor, immediately sentenced, and sent to the guil lotine with those they loved. The brutal apathy with which Fouquier regarded human life is shown in the follow ing instance. A young merchant, whose companion had been executed, addressed to the prosecutor the following letter :
"You have immolated my friend, the only possession I had left in this world. As I lack courage to take my own life, I send you my address; be good enough to deliver me from my misery." Across the bottom of this note Fouquier scrawled, " Let it be done as it is requested," and the young man was hunted up and executed without so much as the mockery of a trial. On the principle of giving the devil his due, I relate the only instance recorded where Fouquier exhibited the human attri bute of compassion. Legrand d'Alleray, at one time the employer of Fouquier, was charged with the offense of having sent money to his sons, who were fugitives. The prosecutor sent word to his old master that the proofs of his guilt had been destroyed, and that if he would deny the charge when interrogated, he would be set free. M. d'Alleray sent back the reply: "The little that is left me of life is not worth purchas ing at the price of falsehood," and maintain ing this attitude he went to his death, de spite the prosecutor's efforts to save him. Fouquier held the position of prosecutor for over a year, during which the victims of his bloodthirsty zeal were numbered by thousands. With the death of Robespierre, whom he also sent to execution, came a turning in the tide of events. But even while momentous questions were pending in the Assembly, and a more lenient order promised hourly to be issued, the sangui nary Fouquier could not be persuaded to stay his cruel hand. He had forty-two unfortunates hastily tried and sent to the scaffold, when, as he well knew, an hour's de lay would have saved them from death. The order came, and the Reign of Terror was ended. Under the new dispensation Fouquier and his accomplices were seized, and after a forty-one days' trial were condemned to the fate they had so often and with such reck less cruelty inflicted upon others. Their ride to the place of execution was followed
