Dealings With The Dead Volume II Part 30

The objection to the guillotine, which was called, for a time, _Louison_, after M. Louis, Secretary of the College of Surgeons, that it would make men familiar with the sight of blood, was urged by the Abbe Maury, and afterwards, by A. M. La Cheze. The Duke de Liancourt, inclined to _mercy_, that is, to the employment of the guillotine. He contended, that it was necessary to efface all recollections of hanging, which, he gravely remarked, had recently been so _irregularly applied_, referring to the summary process of lynching, as we term it--_a la lanterne_.

It is curious to note the doubt and apprehension, which existed, as to the result of the first experiment of decollation. March 3, 1792, the minister, Duport du Tertre, writes thus to the Legislative a.s.sembly--"It appears, by the communications, made to me, by the executioners themselves, that, without some precautions, the act of decollation will be horrible to the spectators. It will either prove them to be monsters, if they are able to bear such a spectacle; or the executioner, himself, alarmed, will fall before the wrath of the people."

The matter being referred to Louis, then Secretary of the Academy of Surgeons, he made his report, March 7, 1792. The new law required, that the criminal should be decapitated--_aura la tete tranchee_; and that the punishment should be inflicted _without torture_. Louis shows how difficult the execution of such a law must be--"We should recollect," says he, "the occurrences at M. de Lally's execution. He was upon his knees, with his eyes covered--the executioner struck him, on the back of his neck--the blow was insufficient. He fell upon his face, and three or four cuts of the sabre severed the head. Such _hacherie_ excited a feeling of horror." To such a polite and gentle nation, this must have been highly offensive.

April 25, 1798. Roederer, Procureur General, wrote a letter to Lafayette, telling him, that a public trial of the new instrument would take place, that day, in the _Place de Greve_, and would, doubtless, draw a great crowd, and begging him not to withdraw the gens d'armes, till the apparatus had been removed. In the Courrier Extraordinaire, of April 27, 1792, is the following notice--"They made yesterday (meaning the 25th) the first trial of the _little Louison_, and cut off a head, one Pelletier. I never in my life could bear to see a man hanged; but I own I feel a greater aversion to this species of execution. The preparations make me shudder, and increase the moral suffering. The people seemed to wish, that M. Sanson had his old gallows."

After the _Louison_, or guillotine, had been in operation rather more than a year, the following interesting letter was sent, by the Procureur General, Roederer, to citizen Guideu. "13 May, 1793. I enclose, citizen, the copy of a letter from citizen Chaumette, solicitor to the commune of Paris, by which you will perceive, that complaints are made, that, after these public executions, the blood of the criminals remains in pools, upon the _Place de Greve_, that dogs came to drink it, and that crowds of men feed their eyes with this spectacle, which naturally instigates their hearts to ferocity and blood. I request you therefore to take the earliest and most convenient opportunity, to remove from the eyes of men a sight so afflicting to humanity."

Voltaire, who thought very gravely, before he delivered the sentiment to the world, has stated of his countrymen, that they were a mixture of the monkey and the tiger. Undoubtedly he knew. In the revolution of 1793, and in every other, that has occurred in France--those excepted which may have taken place, since the arrival of the last steamer--the tiger has had the upper hand. Prudhomme, the prince of pamphleteers, having published fifteen hundred, on political subjects, and author of the General History of the crimes, committed, during the revolution, writing of the execution of Louis XVI. remarks--"Some individuals steeped their handkerchiefs in his blood. A number of armed volunteers crowded also to dip in the blood of the despot their pikes, their bayonets, and their sabres. Several officers of the Ma.r.s.eillais battalion, and others, dipped the covers of letters in this impure blood, and carried them, on the points of their swords, at the head of their companies, exclaiming 'this is the blood of a tyrant.' One citizen got up to the guillotine itself, and plunging his whole arm into the blood of Capet, of which a great quant.i.ty remained; he took up handsful of the clotted gore, and sprinkled it over the crowd below, which pressed round the scaffold, each anxious to receive a drop on his forehead. 'Friends,' said this citizen in sprinkling them, 'we were threatened, that the blood of Louis should be on our heads, and so you see it is.'" Rev. de Paris, No. 185, p. 205.

Upon the earnest request of the inhabitants of several streets, through which the gangs of criminals were carried, the guillotine was removed, June 8, 1794, from the _Place de la Revolution_ to the _Place St.

Antoine_, in front of the ruins of the Bastile; where it remained five days only, during which time, it took off ninety-six heads. The proximity of this terrible revolutionary plaything annoyed the shopkeepers. The purchasers of finery were too forcibly reminded of the uncertainty of life, and the brief occasion they might have, for all such things, especially for neckerchiefs and collars. Once again then, the guillotine, after five days' labor, was removed; and took its station still farther off, at the _Barriere du Trone_. There it stood, from June 9 till the overthrow of Robespierre, July 27, 1794: and, during those forty-nine days, twelve hundred and seventy heads dropped into its voracious basket.

July 28, it was returned to the _Place de la Revolution_.

Sanson, Charles Henry, the executioner of Louis XVI. had not a little _bonhomie_ in his composition--his infernal profession seems not to have completely ossified his heart. He reminds me, not a little, of Sir Thomas Erpingham, who, George Colman, the younger, says, carried on his wars, in France, in a benevolent spirit, and went about, I suppose, like dear, old General Taylor, in Mexico, "pitying and killing." On the day, when Robespierre fell, forty-nine victims were ascending the carts, to proceed to the guillotine, about three in the afternoon. Sanson, at the moment, met that incomparable bloodhound, the _Accusateur Public_, Fouquier de Tinville, going to dinner. Sanson suggested the propriety of delaying the execution, as a new order of things might cause the lives of the condemned to be spared. Fouquier briefly replied, "the law must take its course;"

and went to dine--the forty-nine to die; and, shortly after, their fate was his.

The guillotine, viewed as an instrument of justice, in cases of execution, for capital offences, is certainly a most merciful contrivance, liable, undoubtedly, during a period of intense excitement, to be converted into a terrible toy.

During the reign of terror, matters of extreme insignificancy, brought men, women, and children to the guillotine. The record is, occasionally, awfully ridiculous. A few examples may suffice--Jean Julian, wagoner, sentenced to twelve years' imprisonment, took it into his head, on the way--_s'avisa_--to cry--_Vive le Roi_; executed September, 1792.--Jean Baptiste Henry sawed a tree of liberty; executed Sept. 6, 1793.--M.

Baulny, ex-n.o.ble, a.s.sisted his son to emigrate; executed Jan. 31, 1794.--La veuve Marbeuf _hoped_ the Austrians would come; executed Feb. 5, 1794.--Francis Bertrand, publican, sold sour wine; executed May 15, 1793.--Marie Angelique Plaisant, sempstress, exclaimed--"a fig for the nation;" executed July 19, 1794.

No. CLIII.

An interesting, physiological question arose, in 1796, whether death, by decollation, under the guillotine, were instantaneous or not. Men of science and talent, and among them Dr. Sue, and a number of German physicians, maintained, that, in the brain, after decapitation, there was a certain degree--_un reste_--of thought, and, in the nerves, a measure of sensibility. An opposite opinion seems to have prevailed. The controversy, which was extremely interesting, acquired additional interest and activity, from an incident, which occurred, on the scaffold, immediately after the execution of Marie Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont--commonly known, under the imperishable name of _Charlotte Corday_. A brute, Francois Le Gros, one of the a.s.sistant executioners, held up the beautiful and bleeding head, and slapped the cheek with his hand. A blush was instantly visible to the spectators. In connection with the physiological question, to which I have referred, a careful inquiry was inst.i.tuted, and it was proved, very satisfactorily, that the color--the blush--appeared on _both_ cheeks, after the blow was given. Dr. Sue's account of this matter runs thus--"The countenance of Charlotte Corday expressed the most unequivocal marks of indignation. Let us look back to the facts--the executioner held the head, suspended in one hand; the face was then pale, but had no sooner received the slap, which the sanguinary wretch inflicted, than both cheeks visibly reddened. Every spectator was struck, by the change of color, and with loud murmurs cried out for vengeance, on this cowardly and atrocious barbarity. It can not be said, that the redness was caused by the blow--for we all know, that no blows will recall anything like color to the cheeks of a corpse; besides this blow was given on one cheek, and the other equally reddened." _Sue; Opinion sur le supplice de la guillotine, p. 9._

Sir Thomas Browne, in his Religio Medici, remarked, that he had never known a religion, in which there were impossibilities enough to give full exercise to an active faith. This remark greatly delighted Sir Kenelm Digby, who was an ultra Catholic. The faith of Browne, in regard to things spiritual, was not an overmatch for his credulity, in regard to things temporal, which is the more remarkable, as he gave so much time to his Pseudodoxia, or exposition of vulgar errors? He was a believer in the existence of invisible beings, holding rank between men and angels--in apparitions; and affirmed, _from his own knowledge_, the certainty of witchcraft. Hutchinson, in his essay on witchcraft, repeats the testimony of Dr. Browne, in the case of Amy Duny and Rose Cullender, who were tried, before Sir Matthew Hale, in 1664; and executed, at St. Edmunds Bury, as witches. Sir Thomas stated in court, "_that the fits were natural, but heightened, by the devil's cooperating with the malice of the witches, at whose instance he did the villanies_." He added that "a great discovery had lately been made, in Denmark, of witches, who used the very same way of afflicting persons, by conveying pins into them." Now it would be curious to know what Sir Thomas thought of the famous and apposite story of Sir Everard Digby, the father of Sir Kenelm, and if the faith of Sir Thomas were strong enough, to credit that extraordinary tale.

Charlotte Corday was _beheaded_, and Sir Everard Digby was _hanged_. The difference must be borne in mind, while considering this interesting subject. Sir Everard, who was an amiable young man, was led astray, and executed Jan. 30, 1606, for the part he bore, in the gunpowder plot. Wood, in his "Athenae Oxonienses," vol. iii. p. 693, Lond. 1817, has the following pa.s.sage--"Sir Everard Digby, father to Sir Kenelme, was a goodly gentleman, and the handsomest man of his time, but much pitied, for that it was his ill fate to suffer for the powder plot, in 1605, aged 24, at which time, when the executioner pluck'd out the heart, when the body was to be quartered, and, according to the manner, held it up, saying, _here is the heart of a traytor_, Sir Everard made answer, _thou liest_. This a most famous author mentions, but tells us not his name, in his _Historia Vitae et Mortis_." This most famous author is Lord Bacon--Hist. Vit. et Mort., vol. viii. p. 446, Lond. 1824. The pa.s.sage is so curious, that I give it entire--"Anguillae, serpentes et insecta diu moventur singulis partibus, post concisionem. Etiam aves, capitibus avulsis, ad tempus subsultant: quin et corda animalium avulsa diu palpitant. Equidem meminimus ipsi vidisse hominis cor, qui evisceratus erat (supplicii genere apud nos versus proditores recepto) quod in ignem, de more, injectum, saltabat in altum, primo ad sesquipedem, et deinde gradatim ad minus; durante spatio (ut meminimus) septem aut octo minutarum. Etiam vetus et fide digna traditio est, de bove sub evisceratione mugiente. At magis certa de homine, qui co supplicii genere (quod diximus) evisceratus, postquam cor avulsum penitus esset, et in carnificis manu, tria aut quatuor verba prec.u.m auditus est proferre"--which may be Englished thus--Snakes, serpents, and insects move, a long time, after they have been cut into parts. Birds also hop about, for a time, after their heads have been wrung off. Even the hearts of animals, after they have been torn out, continue long to palpitate. Indeed, we ourselves remember to have seen the heart of a man, who had been drawn, or eviscerated, in that kind of punishment, which we employ against traitors, and which, when cast upon the fire, according to custom, leapt on high, at first, a foot and a half, and gradually less and less, during the s.p.a.ce, if we justly remember, of seven or eight minutes. There is also an ancient tradition, well ent.i.tled to credit, of a cow, that bellowed, under the process of evisceration. And more certain is the story of the man, who was eviscerated, according to the mode of punishment we have referred to, who, when his heart was actually torn out, and in the hands of the executioner, was heard to utter three or four words of imprecation. Sir Everard was executed, as I have stated, in 1605. Lord Bacon was born Jan. 22, 1561, and died April 9, 1626, twenty-one years only after Digby's execution, and at the age of 65.

Lord Bacon was therefore 44 years old, when Digby's execution took place, which fact has some bearing upon the authenticity of this extraordinary story. Lord Bacon speaks confidently of the fact; and his suppression of the name was very natural, as the family of Sir Everard were then upon the stage.

A writer in the London Quarterly Review remarks, in a note on page 274, vol. 73, comparing the case of Charlotte Corday with that of Sir Everard Digby--"This" (Sir Everard's) "was a case of _evisceration_, and not of _decapitation_, which makes the whole difference, as to the credibility of the story."

Chalmers relates the anecdote, and refers to Wood's Athenae, and Lord Bacon's Historia Vitae et Mortis, but speaks of the tale, as "_a story, which will scarcely now obtain belief_." In the Harleian Miscellany, vol.

iii. page 5, Lond. 1809, there is an account of the discovery of the gunpowder plot, imprinted at London, by Robert Barker, 1605. On page 47, a very brief cotemporaneous account is given of Digby's execution, in St.

Paul's churchyard, which contains no allusion whatever to the circ.u.mstance, stated by Wood, and so very confidently, by Lord Bacon.

I suppose few will really believe, that any man's conversational abilities can be worth much, after his head is off, or his heart is out. From the expression of the Quarterly reviewer, it may be inferred, that he did not consider the story of Sir Everard Digby utterly impossible and incredible.

For my own part, I am very much inclined to hand over this extraordinary legend to Judaeus Appella. Every man, who has not, by long experience, like George Selwyn, acquired great self-possession, while enjoying an execution, inclines to the marvellous. Sir Everard, before the work of evisceration began, it must be remembered, had been hanged, the usual length of time; and the words--"_thou liest_"--are stated to have been uttered, at the moment, when the heart, having been plucked out, was held up by the executioner. It is more easy of belief, that some guttural noise, like that, spasmodically uttered by certain birds, after their heads have been chopped off, may have sounded to the gaping bystanders, who looked and listened, _auribus arrectis_, not very unlike the words in question. The belief, that Digby spoke these words, seems to be a.n.a.logous to the belief, that, in _hydrophobia_, the sufferers bark like dogs, simply because, oppressed with phlegm, and nearly strangled, their terrific efforts, to clear the breathing pa.s.sages, are accompanied with a variety of unintelligible, and horrible sounds.

There are some curious cases, on record, which may have something to do with our reasoning, upon this subject. A similar species of death, attended by spasms or convulsions, is said to have been produced, by the bite of other animals. Dr. Fothergill relates cases of death, from the bite of a cat. Thiermayer recites two cases, both terminating fatally, from the bite of a goose, and a hen. Le Cat, Receuil Periodique, ii. page 90, presents a similar case, from the bite of a duck. But we are not informed, that, the patient, in either of these cases, during the spasms, mewed, quacked, cackled, or hissed; and yet there seems to be no rational apology for a patient's _barking_, simply because he has been bitten, by a cat, or a duck, a goose, or a hen.

Spasmodic or convulsive motion, in a human body, which has been hung, or shot, or eviscerated, is a very different thing, from an intelligent exercise of the will, over the organs of speech, producing the utterance even of a word or syllable.

In the cases of persons, who have been shot through the heart, violent spasmodic action is no unusual phenomenon. When I was a boy, the duel took place, between Rand and Millar, at Dorchester Point, then a locality as solitary, as Hoboken, or the Hebrides. The movements of the parties were observed, and their purposes readily surmised, by the officers, on Castle William; and a barge was immediately despatched, from the fort. Shots were exchanged, between the combatants, while the barge was pa.s.sing over. Rand fell, wounded through the heart; and, after lying motionless, for a very brief s.p.a.ce, was seen to leap into the air several feet, and fall again, upon the earth.

No. CLIV.

We are living and learning, forever. Life is a court of ca.s.sation, where truth sits, as chancellor, daily reversing the most incomparably beautiful decrees of theoretical philosophy.

It is not unlikely, that a very interesting volume of 600 pages, folio, might be prepared, to be called the _Mistakes of Science_. The elephant in the moon, and the weighing of the fish have furnished amus.e.m.e.nt, in their day. Even in our own times, philosophers, of considerable note, have seriously _doubted_ the truth of that incomparable hoax, concerning Sir John Hersch.e.l.l's lunar discoveries.

Savans were completely deceived, for a considerable period, by the electrical beatifications of Mr. Bose. One of the most amusing occurrences, upon record, on which occasion, the philosopher, unlike Mr.

Bose, was a perfectly honest man, befell the famous mathematical instrument-maker, Mr. Troughton. He became fully possessed, by the idea, that certain persons, a select few, were capable of exerting a magnetic influence, over the needle, by advancing their faces towards it. So far from being common, this power was limited to a very small number. The statements of Mr. Troughton, and his well-established reputation, for integrity, caused the subject to be gravely discussed, by members of the Royal Society.

Every individual of the very small number, who possessed this remarkable power--every _medium_--was carefully examined. Collusion seemed utterly impossible. A new theory appeared to be established. Amazement ran through the learned a.s.sembly. A careful inquiry was inst.i.tuted, in relation to the manner of life of these _mediums_, from their youth upwards, their occupations, diet, &c., and some very learned papers would, erelong, have been read, before the Royal Society, if Mr. Troughton himself had not previously made a most fortunate discovery--he discovered, that he wore a wig, constructed with _steel_ springs--such, also, was the case with every other _medium_!

The tendency to predicate certainty, of things, manifestly doubtful, is exceedingly common. I fell, recently, into the society of some very intelligent gentlemen, who were _certain_, that Sir John Franklin was lost, irrecoverably lost.

There are some--perhaps their name is not Legion--whose faith is of superior dimensions to the mustard seed, and who believe, that Sir John Franklin is not destroyed; that he yet lives; and, that, sooner or later, he will come back to his friends and the world, with a world of wonders to relate, of all that he has seen and suffered. G.o.d, all merciful, grant it may be so. To all human observation, after a careful balancing of probabilities, there is certainly nothing particularly flattering in the prospect. Yet, on the other hand, absolute, unqualified despair is irrational, and unjustifiable.

The present existence of Sir John Franklin is certainly _possible_. No one, I presume, will say it is _probable_. Some half a dozen good, substantial words are greatly needed, to mark shades between these two, and to designate what is more than _possible_, and less than _probable_.

A careful consideration of the narrative of Sir John Ross, the narrative, I mean, of his second voyage, in quest of a northwest pa.s.sage, and of his abode in the Arctic regions, and of the opinion, very generally entertained, for a great length of time, that he was lost, will strengthen the impression, that Sir John Franklin also may be yet alive, _somewhere_!

Even then, a question may arise, in connection with the force of certain currents, referred to, by those, who have lately returned, from an unsuccessful search for Sir John Franklin, whether it may be possible to return, against those currents, with such means and appliances, as he possessed; and whether, even on this side the grave, there may not be a bourne, from which no presumptuous voyager ever shall return.

The residence of Sir John Ross, in the Arctic regions, continued, through five consecutive years, 1829, '30, '31, '32, '33. To such, as imagine there is any effective summer, in those regions, and who have been accustomed to a.s.sociate spring and summer, with flowers and fruits, it may not be amiss, by way of corrective, to administer a brief pa.s.sage, from the journal of Sir John Ross, in August, 1832--"But to see, to have seen, ice and snow, to have felt snow and ice forever, and nothing forever but snow and ice, during all the months of a year; to have seen and felt but uninterrupted and unceasing ice and snow, during all the months of four years, this it is, that has made the sight of those most chilling and wearisome objects an evil, which is still one in recollection, as if the remembrance would never cease."

At this period, August, 1832, very little hope was entertained, that Sir John Ross and his companions were living. Even a year before, they were generally supposed to be lost.

The abandonment of their s.h.i.+p, which had been locked fast in the ice, for years, and their almost inconceivable toil, while crossing, with their boats, on sledges, to the confluence of Regent's Inlet, and Barrow's Strait, are fully presented in the narrative. Their hour of deliverance came at last, and the event cannot be better described, than in the words of Sir John Ross himself. As they were standing along the southern sh.o.r.e of Harrow's Strait, in their boats, on the 26th of August, a sail, to their inexpressible joy, hove in sight. After a period of great anxiety, lest she should not observe their signals of distress, their deep delight may be imagined, even by an unpractised landsman, when they first became a.s.sured, that they had attracted the notice of the crew, in one of the s.h.i.+p's boats. The reader will be better satisfied with an account from the lips of the [Greek: polytropos os malla polla], himself.

"She was soon along side, when the mate in command addressed us, by presuming, that we had met with some misfortune and lost our s.h.i.+p. This being answered in the affirmative, I requested to know the name of his vessel, and expressed our wish to be taken on board. I was answered, that it was the 'Isabella, of Hull, once commanded by Captain Ross;' on which I stated, that I was the identical man in question, and my people the crew of the Victory. That the mate, who commanded this boat, was as much astonished, as he appeared to be, I do not doubt; while, with the usual blunderheadedness of men, on such occasions, he a.s.sured me, that I had been dead two years. I easily convinced him, however, that what ought to have been true, according to his estimate, was a somewhat premature conclusion; as the bear-like form of the whole set of us, might have shown him, had he taken time to consider, that we were certainly not whaling gentlemen, and that we carried tolerable evidence of our being 'true men and no imposters,' on our backs, and in our starved and unshaven countenances."

However close the resemblance, between Sir John Ross and his comrades to _bears_, they soon become _lions_ on board the Isabella. Sir John continues thus--

"A hearty congratulation followed, of course, in the true seaman style, and, after a few natural inquiries, he added, that the Isabella was commanded by Captain Humphreys; when he immediately went off in his boat to communicate his information on board; repeating, that we had long been given up as lost, not by them alone, but by all England."

In this precedent, there is kindling stuff for hope, if not substantial fuel. After reading this account, the hearts of the strong-hearted cannot fail to be strengthened the more. A scientific and elaborate comparison of all the facts and circ.u.mstances, in the respective cases of Ross and Franklin, may lead to dissipate our hope. But hope is a vivacious principle, like the polypus, from the minutest particle remaining, growing up to be the integral thing, that it was. Science, philosophy, perched upon theoretical stilts, occasionally walk confidently into the mire. Sir John Franklin may yet be among the living, notwithstanding those negative demonstrations, in which many so very plausibly indulge themselves.

Let us follow Sir John Ross and his companions on board the Isabella.--"As we approached slowly after him (the mate of the Isabella) he jumped up the side, and, in a minute, the rigging was manned; while we were saluted with three cheers, as we came within cable's length, and were not long in getting on board my old vessel, where we were all received, by Captain Humphreys, with a hearty seaman's welcome. Though we had not been supported by our names and characters, we should not the less have claimed, from charity, the attentions we received; for never was seen a more miserable looking set of wretches. If to be poor, wretchedly poor, as far as all our present property was concerned, were to have a claim on charity, none could well deserve it more; but, if to look so, be to frighten away the so called charitable, no beggar, that wanders in Ireland, could have outdone us, in exciting the repugnance of those, who know not what poverty can be. Unshaven, since I know not when, dirty, dressed in the rags of wild beasts, instead of the tatters of civilization, and starved to the very bones, our gaunt and grim looks, when contrasted with those of the well dressed and well fed men around us, made us all feel, I believe, for the first time, what we really were, as well as what we seemed to others."

Very considerable training must, doubtless, be required, to reconcile a Mohawk Indian to a feather bed. A short pa.s.sage from the Journal of Sir John Ross forcibly ill.u.s.trates the truth, that we are the creatures of habit. "Long accustomed, however, to a cold bed, on the hard snow or the bare rock, few could sleep, amid the comforts of our new accommodations. I was myself compelled to leave the bed, which had been kindly a.s.signed me, and take my abode in a chair for the night, nor did it fare much better with the rest. It was for time to reconcile us to this sudden and violent change, to break through what had become habit, and to inure us, once more, to the usages of our former days."

No. CLV.