The trial, &c. of Louis XVI. late King of France, and Marie Antoinette, his Queen. Embellished with copper-plate engravings.

The trial, &c. of Louis XVI. late King of France, and Marie Antoinette, his Queen. Embellished with copper-plate engravings.

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THE TRIAL, &c. OF LOUIS XVI. LATE KING OF FRANCE.

Report of the Council who communicated the decree to LOUIS.

ORDERS OF THE DAY. January 20, 1793.—Second Year of the Republic.

On which the period of his fate, and the day of execution took place and was as follows:

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TRIAL, &c. OF MARIE ANTOINETTE, LATE QUEEN OF FRANCE.

THE ACT OF ACCUSATION, Presented against Maria Antoinette, of Austria, ci-devant Queen of France, by the Accusateur Publique.

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THE TRIAL, &c. OF LOUIS XVI. LATE KING OF FRANCE, AND MARIE ANTOINETTE, HIS QUEEN.

Embellished with copper-plate engravings.

LANSINGBURGH. Printed by SILVESTER TIFFANY, for, and sold by, THOMAS SPENCER, at his Book-Store, in Market-street, Albany, 1794.

THE TRIAL, &c. OF LOUIS XVI. LATE KING OF FRANCE.

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THE national convention declares LOUIS CAPET, last king of the French, guilty of a conspiracy against the liberty of the nation and of a crime against the general safety of the State.

II. The national convention declares, that LOUIS CAPET shall undergo the punishment of death.

III. The national convention declares, that the act of LOUIS CAPET, brought to the ban by his counsel, and termed an appeal to the nation on the sentence passed against him in the convention, is null; and forbids every person [Page] from giving it authority, on pain of being prosecuted, and punished as guilty of a crime against the general safety of the republic.

IV. The temporal executive council shall notify the present decree, within the day, to Louis Capet, and shall take the necessary measures of police and safety to secure its execution within twenty-four hours, reckoning from the notification, and shall render an account of the whole to the national convention immediately after its execution.

Report of the Council who communicated the decree to LOUIS.

The executive council was convoked and assembled at a very early hour this morning, in order to consult on the execution of a decree relative to Louis Capet.

The council then sent for the mayor of Paris, the commandant-general, the president, and the accusateur publique of the criminal tribunal: after having consulted with these constituted authorities, the minister of justice, the president of the executive council, a member of the council, the secretary of the council, and two members of the department repaired to the Tower in the Temple.

At two o'clock they were conducted before Louis, to whom the minister of justice as president [Page] of the executive council, spoke as follows:—Louis, the executive council hath charged us to notify to you the extracts of the process verbal of the national convention of the 15th 17th, and 19th of the present month: the secretary will now read them—[On this the secretary of the executive council read the three above articles.]

Louis then observed, that he had something to say; on which he took out the following requisition, written with, and signed by his own hand.

"I demand a delay of three days, in order to enable me to appear in the presence of Almighty God; and the better to effect this, I request leave to call to my aid the ex-bishop of Fermont, who lodges at No. 413 Rue de Bacq.

"I demand that his person be protected from all insult in order that he may be enabled to deliver himself up without fear to the work of charity which he is about to be employed in, with respect to me.

"I demand to be freed from the perpetual inspection which the general council of the commons has made use of towards me for some time past.

[Page] "I demand, that during this interval, I may be permitted to see my family, without any witness, every time that I sollicit this permission.

"I desire that the national convention may deliberate immediately about the fate of my family, and that they may be permitted to retire whenever they please.

"I recommend all the persons who were attached to me to the care and protection of the nation. There are many of them who have expended the whole of their fortunes in order to purchase their places, and must consequently be in great distress.

"Among my pensioners are a great number of old men, and of poor people burthened with large families, who have not any thing to subsist on but the allowance which I paid them.

"Given at the Tower in the Temple, January 20, 1793.

(Signed) "LOUIS."

The convention having heard the report of the minister decrees, that the respite demanded by Louis shall not be granted.

That the vigilance of the municipality shall be continued in the chamber adjoining that of Louis. Respecting the other points, the convention passes to the order of the day, considering that the committee of legislation is competent thereto.

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ORDERS OF THE DAY. January 20, 1793.—Second Year of the Republic.

The provisional executive council, after deliberating on the measures to be taken, in order to execute the decrees of the national convention of the 15th, 17th, 19th and 20th of January 1793, has ordered as follows:

I. That the execution of the judgement of Louis Capet shall take place to-morrow, Monday the 21st.

II. The place of execution shall be La Place de la Revolution, ci-de vant Louis XV. between the pedestal and the Elysian Fields.

III. Louis Capet shall leave the Temple by eight o'clock in the morning, and the execution shall take place at noon.

IV. Commissaries from the department of Paris, commissaries from the municipality, and two members from the tribunal criminal, shall assist at the execution. The secretary of the tribunal shall draw up the process-verbal; and the said commissaries and the members of the tribunal, immediately after the execution, shall render an account of it to the council, who will remain in permanent sitting during the whole day.

V. Louis Capet shall pass by the Boulevards to the place of execution.

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By the Executive Provisional Council,

ROLAND,

CLAVIERE,

MONCE,

LEBRUN,

GARAT,

PACHE.

By order of the Council, GRONVILLE, Secretary.

On which the period of his fate, and the day of execution took place and was as follows:

At six o'clock in the morning he took his leave of the queen and the royal family, and was with them for some time, the parting was affecting to the last degree; the distress of the Queen passed all description. He left the Temple agreeable to instructors from the provincial council, at eight o'clock, at which time the mournful procession set out from the Temple. The royal victim sat in the mayor's carriage with his confessor by his side praying very fervently, and two captains of the nationonal light horse on the front seat. The carriage was drawn by two black horses, preceeded by the Mayor, General Santerre, and other municipal officers. One squadron of horse, with trumpeters and kettle drums led this melancholy convoy, three heavy pieces of ordnance, with proper implements and canoneers, with lighted matches, went before the vehicle, which was escorted on both sides by a treble row of [...].

[Page] The train moved on with a slow pace from the Temple to the Boulevards, which was planned with cannon, and beset with national guards, drums beating, trumpets sounding, and colours flying. The Guillotine was erected in the middle of the square, directly facing the gate of the garden of Thuileries, between the pedestal on which the grand-father of Louis was standing before the 10th of August, and the avenues which lead to the groves, called the Elysion Fields. The trotting and neighing of horses, the firrill found of the trumpets, and the continual beating of drums pierced the cars of every beholder and heightened the terrors of the awful scene.

The scaffold was high and conspicuous, the houses surrounding the place of execution were full of women, who looked through the windows. The very slates which covered the roofs of the houses were raised for the curious and interested to look through.

The king alighted from the carriage at twenty minutes past ten, and ascended the steps of the scaffold with heroic assurance, and every feature of his majestic countenance be spoke the calm serenity of conscious innocence, and the heroic fortitude of a christan. His hair was dressed in curls, his beard shaved; he wore [Page] clean shirt and stock, a white waistcoat, black florentine silk breeches, black silk stockings, and his shoes were tied with black silk strings.

Having then taken leave of his confessor who shed a thousand tears, he beckoned with his hand to he heard; the noise of the warlike instruments ceased for a moment; but soon after a thousand voices vociferated, with a detestable ferocity, "No speeches! No harrangues!'; The unfortunate monarch wrung his hands—lifted up towards heaven—and with agony in his eyes and gesture, exclaimed, distinctly enough to be heard by those persons who were next to the seatfold, "To thee O God, do I commend my soul! I forgive my enemies! I die innocent."

He was then seized by the executioner dressed in black, and they immediately tied a plank of about eighteen inches broad, and an inch thick, to his body as he stood upright, sustening it about his arms, belly and legs; this plank was about four feet long, and came almost up to his chin. The executioner directly laid him upon his belly on the bench and lifted up the upper part of the board which was to receive his neck, adjusted to his head properly, then shut the board and pulled the string, which [Page] is fastened to the peg at the top of the machine, which lifted up a latch, and down came the axe; [See the annexed plate.] the head was cut off in a moment, are fell into a basket which was ready to receive it; the executioner took it up by the hair, to shew the populace, and then put it into another basket along with the body.—The final part of his execution was exactly twenty-two minutes past ten.

After his head was cut off, the Sans Cullottes and Jacobins waved their hats in the air; exclaiming, vive la nation vive la republique! The music struck up caira, and the body was immediately removed in a black coffin.—The procession returned to the Temple in full gallop, and the sworn deputies went to make their report.

Louis made a will, in which he asked pardon of God, for having sanctioned the decree upon the civil constitution of the clergy, although this sanction was extorted by violence; and was contrary to his solemn protest.

In this testament, Louis acknowledges his having freely accepted all the other parts of the constitution; and having neglected nothing to remove from his dominions the scourge of war, and prevent the invasion of the Prussians.

In a previous decree made by the national convention, the place for putting their inhuman [Page] sentence into executition was to have been the Carousel, fronting the palace of the Thuilleries. This was changed by the ministers, to whom all the arrangements were consided, to the place de la Revolution, heretofore the place Louis XV.

This city yesterday resembled an immense camp; the sections and federates were marching through the different districts;—they had their watch word; they wheeled round where one corps met the other. They carried with them upwards of 150 pieces of heavy artilery, and it made a most imposing spectacle. They were constantly in motion, and could not stand still five minutes.

During the exhibition of this horrid scene, all Paris was in consternation.

The commissaries of the Temple found in the king's desk some gold coin, to the amount of about 3000 livres. It was done up in roulers, and on then was written, "to M. Malasherbes. This grateful bequest of the dedeased monarch was not complied with—the money was deposited in the secretary's office.

Louis saw his last moment approaching with coolness and tranquility. It is long since he resolved to sacrifice life if we may judge from the two following anecdotes.

[Page] Two years ago, M. de Laincourt representing to Louis, that the modifications and the veto which he opposed to certain decrees, might be dangerous—"What can they do? replied Louis, "They will put you to death—well, I shall obtain an immortal for a mortal crown."

The other anecdote is more recent, and proves like the former, that Louis never feared death,—On the day that Deseze made his defence in the convention, Malasherbes, in a conversation which he had with Louis in the evening wished to prepare him for the event by hinting that his defence might not be attended with the desired effect, and that the issue was uncertain." "I understand, you" replied Louis, "but my resolution is already taken. I see without fear my last hour approaching; and I shall lay my head on the block without uneasiness. You will perhaps be surprised when I tell you that my wife and my sister think exactly as I do."

The last requests of the unfortunate Louis breathe his soul of magnanimity, and a mind enlightened with the finest ideas of human virtue. He appears not to be that man which his enemies reported.—His heart was found, his head was clear, and he would have reigned with glory, had he but possessed those faults [Page] which his assassins laid to his charge.—His mind possessed the suggestion of wisdom; and even in his last moments, when the spirit of life was winging for another world, his lips gave utterance to them, and he spoke with firmness and resignation.

Thus ended the life of Louis XVI. after a period of four years detention; during which he experienced from his subjects every species of Ignominy and cruelty which a people could inflict on the most sanguinary tyrant.—Louis the XVI. who was proclaimed at the commencement of his reign, the friend of the people; and by the constituent assembly, the restorer of their liberties;—LOUIS, who but a few years since was the most powerful monarch in Europe, has at last perished on the scaffold. Neither his own natural goodness of heart—his desire to procure the happiness of his subjects—nor that ancient love which the French entertained for their monarch, has not been sufficient to save him from this cruel sacrcifie.

† (inverted †)† LOUIS the XVIth was born on the 24th of August, 1754, St. Bartholomew's day, otained in the annals of French history by the massacre of the Hugonets.

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[...] QUEEN [...] FRANCE [...]

TRIAL, &c. OF MARIE ANTOINETTE, LATE QUEEN OF FRANCE.

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THE ACT OF ACCUSATION, Presented against Maria Antoinette, of Austria, ci-devant Queen of France, by the Accusateur Publique.

"ANTOINE QUENTIN FOUQUIER, public accuser of the criminal revolutionary tribunal, established at Paris by a decree of the national convention of the 10th of March, 1793, second year of the republic, without any recourse to the tribunal of cessation, in virtue of the power given him by the 11th article of another decree of the convention of April 5, following, stating that the public [Page] accuser of the said tribunal is authorised to arrest, pursue and judge upon the denunciation of the constituted authorities, or of the citizens, states,—

"That by a decree of the convention, of the 1st of August last, Marie Antoinette, widow of Louis Capet, has been brought before the revolutionary tribunal, as accused of conspiring against France; that by another decree of the convention, of October 3, it has been decreed, that the revolutionary tribunal should occupy itself without delay, and without interruption, on the trial; that the public accuser received the papers concerning the widow Capet, on the 19th and 20th of the first month of the second decade, commonly called the 11th and 12th of October of the present month; that one of the judges of the tribunal immediately proceeded to the interrogatories of the widow Capet; that an examination being made of all the pieces transmitted by the public accuser, it appears that, like Messaline, Brunchant, Predigende, and Medicis, who were formerly qualified with the titles of queens of France, whose names have ever been odious, and will never be effaced from the page of history—

"Marie Antoinette, widow of Louis Capet, has, since her abode in France, been the scourge and blood sucker of the French: that [Page] even before the happy revolution which gave the French people their sovereignty, she had political correspondence with a man called the king of Bohemia and Hungary: that this correspondence was contrary to the interests of France; and not content with acting in concert with the brother of Louis Capet, and the infamous and execrable Colonne, at that time minister of the Finances; of having squandered the finances of France (the fruit of the sweat of the people) in a dreadful manner, to satisfy inordinate pleasures, and to pay the agents of her criminal intrigues, it is notorious that she has at different times transmitted millions to the emperor, which served him, and still supports him to sustain a war against the republic; and that it is by such excessive plunder, that she has at length exhausted the national treasury.

"That since the revolution, the widow Capet has not for a moment withheld criminal intelligence and correspondence with foreign powers, and in the interior of the republic, by agents devoted to her, whom she subsidized and caused to be paid out of the treasury of the cidevant civil list; that at various epochs she has employed every manoeuvre that she thought consistent with her perfidious views to bring about a counter-revolution: first, having under [Page] pretext of a necessary union between the ci-devant gardes du-corps, and the officers and soldiers of the regiment of Flanders, contrived a repast between these two corps on the first of October, 1789, which degenerated into an absolute orgy as the desired, and during the course of which the agents of the widow Capet perfectly seconded her counter-revolutionary projects; brought the greater part of the guests, in the moment of inebriety, to sing songs expressive of their most entire devotion to the throne, and the most marked aversion of the people; of having excited them insensibly to wear the white cockade, and to tread the national cockade under foot; and of having authorised, by her presence, all the counter-revolutionary excesses, particularly in encouraging the women who accompanied her, to distribute these white cockades among the guests; and having on the 4th of the same month, testified the most immoderate joy at what passed during these orgies.

'Secondly, Having in concert with Louis Capet directed to be distributed very plentifully throughout the kingdom publications of a counter-revolutionary nature, some of which were pretended to have been published by the conspirators on the other side of the Rhine (meaning, we suppose, in Coblentz) such as—'Petitions to the emigrants—Reply of the emigrants—The emigratst othe people—The shortest [Page] follies are the best—The order of march—The return of the emigrants, and other such writings:—of having carried her perfidy and dissimulation to such a height, as to have circulated writings in which she herself is described in very unfavorable colors, in order to cloak the imposture; thereby to make it to be believed to foreign powers that she was extremely ill treated by Frenchmen, to instigate them to go to war with France.

"That in order to carry on her counter-revolutionary designs with more efficacy, she, by means of agents, caused in Paris, towards the begining of October, 1789, a famine, which occasioned a new insurrection; in consequence of which, an innumerable crowd of citizens of both sexes set out for Versailles on the 5th of said month; that this fact is proved beyond all contradiction, as the next day there was a plenty of every thing, even after the time that the widow Capet arrived with her family in Paris.

"That being scarcely arrived in Paris, the widow Capet fertile in intrigues of every kind formed committees, consisting of all the counter-revolutionists and intriguers of the constituent and legislative assemblies, which held their meeting in the dead of the night; that plots were there formed how to destroy the rights of man, and the decrees already passed, which were to form the basis of the new constitution; [Page] that it was at these committees, or meetings, that the necessary measures were deliberated to obtain a revision of those decrees which were favorably to the people; that the slight of Louis Capet, his widow, and his whole family, was impeded, as they travelled under fictitious names, in the month of June 1791; that the widow Capet confesses in her interrogatory, that it was she who opened and locked the door of the apartment thro' which the fugitives passed; that independent of the confession of the widow Capet in this respect, it is confirmed, by the testimony of Louis Charles Capet, and by his sister, that De la Fayette favored all the designs of the widow Capet, in the same manner as Bailly did white he was mayor of Paris, and that both were present when the fugitives escaped and favoured their slight as much in their power. That the widow Capet, after her return from Varennes, re-commenced her coteries at which she herself presided and that aided by her favourite La Fayette, the gates of the Thuilleries were kept locked, which deprived the citizens of the power of passing backwards and forwards in the courts of the Thuilleries; that those only who had cards were permitted to pass. That this order was given out by La Fayette as a measure of [Page] punishment to the fugitives, though it ferved only as a trick to prevent the citizens from knowing what passed at these midnight orgies, and from discovering the plots against liberty carried on in this infamous abode.

"That it was at these meetings, that the horrible massacre which took place on the 17th of July, 1791, was planned, when so many zeallous patriots were killed in the Champ de Mars; that the massacre which had previously taken place at Nancy, as well as those which have since happened indifferent parts of the republic, were ordered and determined on in these secret councils; that these insurrections, in which the blood of such an immerse number of patriots has been spilt, were plotted in order the more expeditiously and securely to obtain a revision of the decrees passed and founded on the rights of man, which were so obnoxious to the ambition and counter-revolutionary views, of Louis Capet and Marie Antoinette, that the constitution of 1791, being once accepted, the widow Capet took every means in her power to destroy its energy by means of her manoeuvres; that she employed agents in different parts of the republic to effect this object of annihilating liberty, and to make the French once more to fall beneath the tyrannic yoke under which they had languished for so many years; that for this purpose, the widow Capet [Page] ordered it to be discussed in these midnight meetings, which were truly called the A [...]rian cabinet, how far it might not be possible to counteract the laws passed in the legislative assembly; that it was in consequence of these councils and her advice that Louis Capet was persuaded to oppose his veto to the famous and salutary decrees passed in the legislaive assembly, against the ci-devant princes, brothers of Louis Capet, against the emigrants, and against the horde of refractory and fanatical priests, who were spread all through France; a veto which has proved one of the principal causes of the evils which France has since experienced.

"That it is the widow Capet who caused perverse ministers to be nominated, and placed her creatures in the armies and public offices, men who were known by the whole nation to be conspirators against liberty; that it was by her manoeuvres and those of her agents, as able as they were perfidious, that she got a new guard formed for Louis Capet, composed of ancient officers who had quitted their corps, and had refused to take the constitutional oath; that she gave appointments to refractory priests and strangers: and in short, to all those who were disliked by the nation, and who were worthy of serving in the army of Coblentz, whither many of them fled after being cashiered.

[Page] "That it was the widow Capet, who in conjunction with a scandalous faction, at that time domineered over the legislative assembly, and for some time over the convention; who declared war against the king of Hungary and Bohemia, her own brother; that it was thro' her manoeuvres and intrigues, at all times pernicious to France, that the French were obliged to make their first retreat from Flanders.

"That it is the widow Capet who forwarded to foreign courts the plan of the campaign, and the attacks which were agreed upon in the council: so that by means of this double treason, the enemies of France were always informed before hand of the movements of the armies of the republic; from whence it follows—that the widow Capet is the authoress or all those reverses of fortune, which the armies of the republic have experinced at different times.

"That the widow Capet combined and plotted with her perfidious agents the horrible conspiracy which broke out on the day of the 10th of August; which failed only through the courageous and the incredible efforts of the patriots: that to this end, she seduced into her dwelling of the Thuilleries, and even into the subterraneous passages under it, Swiss soldiers, [Page] who at the expiration of a decree then passed, were no longer to belong to the body guard of Louis Capet; that she kept them in a state of drunkenness, from the 9th to the 10th in the morning, the day appointed for the execution of this horrible conspiracy; that for the same purpose, she had re-united on the 9th, a body of those beings known by the name of the Knights of the Dagger, who had figured away with the same infamous designs, and in the same place, on the 21st of February, 1791, and again on the 21st of June, 1792.

"That the widow Capet, fearing no doubt that this conspiracy might not have the promised effect, went on the evening of the 9th of August, at half after nine, into the room where the Swiss, and others in her interest, were busy making carriages; that in order to excite them the more, she took up the cartouches and bit them.

"That the next day, the 10th of August, she pressed and solicited Louis Capet to go to the Thuilleries at five in the morning, to review the real Swiss guards and those who had assumed their uniform; and at his return she presented him with a pistol, saying—"This is the moment to shew yourself," and on his refusing she called him a coward.

"That notwithstanding the widow Capet [Page] denies having given any orders to fire on the people, her conduct on the 9th—her deeds in the room of the Swiss guards—the councils she held all the night long—the article of the pistol, and her words to Louis Capet; their sudden retreat from the Thuilleries, and the firing on the people at that very moment he and she entered the room of the legislative assembly;—in one word, all these circumstances united, leave no doubt but that in her councils during the night, it was resolved that the people must be fired at, and that Louis Capet and Marie Antoinette, the female director of that conspiracy, should themselves give the orders to fire.

"That to the perfidious, intrigues, and manoeuvres of the widow Capet, in confederacy with that infamous faction of which we have just spoken, and with all the enemies of the republic, France is indebted for the internal war which has distressed her so long; but the end of which is fortunately not much more distant than that of its authors.

"That at all times, the widow Capet by the influence she had acquired over Louis Capet, insinuated into him that perfidious and dangerous art of dissimulation, to promise by public acts the very contrary he intended to perform; and that they both in their midnight councils [Page] plotted the ruin of that liberty, so dear to Frenchmen, [and which, they will take care to perserve] and to recover the plenitude of the royal prerogatives.

That finally, the widow Capet, in every respect immoral, and a new Aggrippina, is so dissolute and so familiar with all crimes, that forgetting her quality of mother, and the limits prescribed by the law of nature, has not hesitated to prostitute herself with Louis Charles Capet her son, &c. according to the confession of the latter, she has committed indecencies with him, the very idea and name of which, strike the soul with horror."

According to this report, the public accuser brings the above accusations against Marie Antoinette, qualifying herself in her interrogatory by the title of Lorraine and Austria, widow of Louis Capet; and states—

1st. "That in conjunction with the brothers of Louis Capet and the infamous exminister Calonne, she squandered away, in a most horrid manner, the French finances; sent innumerable sums to the Emperor, and drained the national treasury.

2d. "That as well by herself, as by the aid of her counter-revolutionary agents, she kept up a correspondence with the enemies of the republic, and informed these enemies, or [Page] caused them to be informed of all plans of campaigns and attacks resolved on and determined on in the council.

3d. "That through her intrigues and maneuvres, and those of her agents, she formed conspiracies and plots against the interior and exterior safety of France, and to that effect kindled a civil was divers provinces of the republic; armed one citizen against another, and by these means spilled the blood of an incalculable number of citizens contrary to the 5th article of the first section of the penal code, and to the 2d article of the second section of the same code.

"In consequence of all which charges, the public accuser requests that an act of the present accusation be given him by the tribunal; that it be ordained, that on his requisition, and thro' the chanel of a serjeant at arms, Maria Antoniette, qualifying herself by the title of Lorraine and Austria, widow of Louis Capet, actually confined in the prison called the Conciergerie of the palace, be entered on the registers of the said prison, there to remain the same as in a house of justice, and that the sentence to be given shall be notified to the municipality of Paris and to the accused.

[Page] "Done in the the chamber of the public accuser, the 1st day of the third decade of the 1st month of the 2d year of the French Republic, one and indivisible.

(Signed) "ANTOINE QUENTIN FOUQUIER."

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"The Tribunal, in compliance with the request of the public accuser, grants him an act of the accusation by him made against Marie Antoinette, called of Lorraine and Austria, widow of Louis Capet, and orders that, agreeably to the said request, and thro' the means of a serjeant at arms, bearer of ordonnance, Marie Antoinette, widow of Louis Capet, shall be bodily arrested, & entered on the registers of the prison called the Conciergerie, where she is actually detained, there to remain the same as in a house of justice; and that the present ordonnance be notified to the municipality of Paris, and to the accused.

"Done and adjudged at the Tribunal, 2d day of the 3d decade, of the first month of the 2d year of the republic, Arm and-Martial-Joseph Herman, Etienne Fouriel, Thoussaint Sechellier, Pierre Andre Dossinhall, Gabriel de Liege, Pierre Louis Ragmay, Antoine Marie Francois-Joseph D [...] rot, Eteinne Macod, all judges of the Tribunal."

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The president said to the accused after the act of accusation had been read—"This is what you are accused of; lend and attentive ear; you are going to hear the charges laid against you:"

Laurent Lecointre, deputy to the national convention, deposed against the accused, for having formerly been the wife of the ci-devant king of France; and for being the person who, at the time of her removal to the temple, had charged him with a memorial to the convention, in order to gain over 12 or 14 persons, whom she mentions, to what she called her service. The convention, on that occasion, passed to the order of the day upon the ground that he should address himself to the municipality.

The deponent then entered upon the detail of the festivals and orgies which took place at Versailles, from the year 1789; the result of which had been, a dreadful dilapidation in the finances of France. The witness gave a detail of what preceeded and followed the assemblies of the notables, till the epocha of the opening of the States General; the state of the generous inhabitants of Versailles; their grievous perplexities on the 23d of June, 1789, when the artillery men of Nasau, whose artillery was placed in the stables belonging to [Page] the accused, refused to fire upon the people. At length, the Parisians having shaken off the yoke of tyranny, this revolutionary movement roammated the energy of their brethern at Versailles. They formed the very hardy and courageous project of freeing themselves from the oppression of the despot, or of his agents. On the 28th of July, the citizens of Versailles formed a with to organize themselves into national guards, like their brethren at Paris. They nevertheless proposed to consult the king; the negociator was the ci-devant prince de Poix. Endeavours were made to prolong the matter; but the organization having been made, the staff was appointed; D'Estaing was named commandant general, and Gouvernet second in command.

Some others here entered into the detail of the acts which proceded and followed the arrival of the 20th of September, sent for some officers of the national guard, and made them a present of two colours; a third remained, which they were told was destined for a battalion of pretended guards paid for the avowed purpose, as it was declared, of relieving the inhabitants of Versailles, who were thus cajoled at the same time that it was affected to pity, them, they in reality were abhorted.

On the 29th of September, 1789, the national [Page] guard gave a repast to its brave brethren, the soldiers of the regiment of Flanders. The public journals gave an account at the time, that at the repast of the citizens, nothing passed contrary to the principles of liberty; but that the feast given October the 1st, by the gardes de corps, had no other aim than to provoke the national guard against the cidevant soldiers of Flanders, and the chasseurs des trois Eveches.

"The witness observed, that the accused appeared at this latter part with her husband; that they were loudly applauded there; that the air, O Richard! O my King! was played; that the health of the king and queen were drank, as well as that of her son; but that the health of the nation, which had been proposed, was rejected. After this orgy, they removed, themselves to the castle of the ci-devant court called Marble; and there in order to give the king a just idea of the manner in which they were disposed to defend the interests of his family, as occasion required it, a person named Perceval, aid-de-camp of D'Estaing, mounted first; after him a grenadier of the regiment of Flanders; a third dragoon having also attempted to scale the said balcony, and not being able to succeed, would have destroyed it. With respect to the said Perceval, [Page] he took the cross with which he was decorated in order to give it to a grenadier, who like him had scaled the balcony of the ci-devant king."

Upon the request of the public accuser, the tribunal ordered, that a mandamus should be issued to bring forth Perceval d'Estaing.

The witness added, that on the 3d of the same month of October, the gardes de corps gave a second repast. It was there that the most violent outrages were commited upon the national cockade, which was troden under foot.

The deponent here detailed what happened at Versailles on the 5th and 6th of October, d'Estaing being informed of the movements which were making in Paris, went to the municipality of Versailles in order to obtain permission to carry away the ci-devant king, who was then hunting, and who was entirely ignorant of what was passing; with a promise to bring him back when tranquillity should be restored. The witness deposited upon the desk the pieces relative to the facts contained in his declaration, which were added to the process.

§

[Page]

PARIS, October 16.

Yesterday morning the once all powerful and beautiful Marie Antoinette, consort of the unfortunate Louis, king of France, the daughter, sister, and aunt of emperors, was brought like the meanest malefactor from the vile prison of the Conciergerie, and placed at the criminal bar of the revolutionary tribunal.

The act of accusation, as prepared by the public accuser, was to the following purport:

Marie Antoinette stands charged: 1st. With having dilapidated and lavished the finances of the nation, in concert with the execrable Colonne, by causing to be transmitted to the emperor several millions, which still serve to carry on the war against France, 2dly. With having, in imitation of Brunchaud, and Medicis, who also called themselves queens of France, conspired against the liberty of the French nation.—3dly, With having exited the murders of October 5, and 6.—5thly, With having in concert with Bailly and la Fayette, caused the patriots to be butchered in the Camp de Mars.—6thly, With having prevailed upon the Swiss, to fire on the people on the 10th of August.—7thly, With having like another Agrippina, forgotten she was a mother, in order to commit incest with her son.

Shocked as this unhappy queen must have [Page] been at some of the articles of her accusation, and particularly at the last, which seems to have been designed to load her memory with infamy, she heard them with magnanimous fortitude and composure, and replied without confusion, and with dignity to the interrogatory, which began as follows:

President

—"What is your name."—

Queen

—"Marie Antoinette of Lorrain and Austria."

President

—"Your quality?"

Queen

—I am the widow of Louis Capet, king of the French."

[Here the witnesses were called in.]

Laurent Lecointre, the first witness, formerly chief of a division of the national guard of Versailles, and at present a member of the national convention, related to the historical occurrences of the 5th and 6th of October, and from his relation it appeared, that the ci-devant gardes de corps or life guards, were the first agressors. Lecointre spoke also, though not as an ocular witness, of the nocturnal riot which was occasioned October 1, at Versailles, by the late king's life guards in the hall of the opera. "Marie Antoinette said he, repaired to that banquet she applauded the conduct of the guards she also visited the regiment of Nassau and the [Page] chasseurs of Trois Eveches, who were quartered in the Orangerie of the gardens of Versailles."

Queen

—"I repaired, I must own, with my husband and his children to the hall of the opera house: but I did not see that the national cockade was trod under foot. It is false that I ever spoke to the soldiers of the regiment of Nassau, or to the chasseurs of Trois Evoches.

President

—"What did you says to the life guards when you appeared at the orgie?"

Queen

"I applauded that banquet, because it was to have produced the union of the life guards with the national guards.

Public Accuser

"Have you not held secret council at the house of the cidevant duchess of Bolignac, councils at which the cidevant princes assisted, and in which, after having discussed the fate of the empire, you gave yourself up to the infamous pleasures of debauchery?"

Queen

—"All the state affairs were discussed in council, and no where else. I have no knowledge of the rest of this assertion."

Public Accuser

—"Are nor Thouret, [...]arentin, and De Espremurl, the authors of the articles of the declaration of June 23d?"

Queen

—"The ministers in place alone composed the council at that time."

Judge

—"Did not your husband communicate [Page] his designs to you, when he invested the hall of the representatives of the people with troops?"

Queen

—"My husband reposed his confidence in me, he communicated to me the speech he was to have made on that occasion. He had in other respects, no had intentions."

Judge

—"Why did troops of the line invest Paris and Versailles?"

Queen

—"For the sake of general safety."

Judge

—"What use have you made of the immense sums which you have been entrusted with?"

Queen

—No enormous sum has been entrusted to me; the accounts of my household will prove what use has been made of all I have received.

Judge

—"How did the family of the Polignacs, who was so poor at first, grow so rich?"

Queen

—"That family held offices at court which were very lucrative."

The Queen was then questioned respecting the flight to Varennes. She acknowledge that she opened the door and led the way from the Thuilleries, and that though they saw M. La Fayette, as they crossed the square of the Carousel, he knew nothing of their flight.

Herbert substitute of the commons, then gave evidence with a view of substantiating the infamous [Page] famous charge of incest, and stated that it was found upon the confession of young Louis himself.

When the tribual put the question on this charge, the queen indignantly replied as follows:

"I remain, sir, silent on that subject, because nature holds all such crimes in abhorrence," and then turning with an animated air to the people, she exclaimed," I appeal to all mothers who are present in this auditory—is such a crime possible?"

After the examination had closed, the queen was soon condemned, "as guilty of having been accessary to, and having co-operated in different manoevures against the liberty of France; of having entertained a correspondence with the enemies of the republic; of having participated in a plot tending to kindle civil [...] in the interior of the republic and [...] against each other.

When the sentence was read, the queen cast down her eyes, and did not raise them again. Have you nothing to reply upon the determination of the law? said the president to her. Nothing she replied. He then addressed himself to her pleaders, "and you officious defenders" our mission is fulfilled with respect to the widow Capet, "said he.

[Page] The morning (the 16th) this unhappy victim of democratic fury was ignominiously carried to the place of [...] The whole [...] of Paris was on foot from the palace [...] to the palace de la Revolution. The [...] were lined by two very close rows of armed citizens. The queen was in a white loose dress—but they had tied her arms behind her.—As she passed along, the multitude frequently cried out, bravo.!' At the place of execution, she looked firmly round her on all sides. She was accompained by the ci-devant curate of S. Landry, a constitutional priest, and on the scaffold preserved her natural dignity of mind.

After the execution three young persons dipped their handkerchiefs in her blood—They were immediately arrested.

[...] de Coundry and [...] de la Garde, the pleaders of Marie Antoinette [...] been put in a state of arrest [...], by order of the committee, of general surety. The order says that this is a measure of general safety, that the arrest shall last twenty four hours, and that every attention shall be paid [...].

FINIS.

Information about this book

Title statement

The trial, &c. of Louis XVI. late King of France, and Marie Antoinette, his Queen. Embellished with copper-plate engravings.

Louis XVI, King of France, 1754-1793.

Publication

Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

Place of publication

Ann Arbor, MI :

Date

2011-05.

ID [DLPS]

N36069

ID [TCP]

N36069

ID [STC]

Shipton 47100

ID [NOTIS]

APV8341

ID [IMAGE-SET]

47100

ID [EVANS-CITATION]

99003886

Availability

This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal. The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

Series

Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 ; no. 47100.

Notes

(Evans-TCP ; no. N36069)

Transcribed from: (Readex Archive of Americana ; Early American Imprints, series I ; image set 47100)

Images scanned from Readex microprint and microform: (Early American imprints. First series ; no. 47100)

Source

— The trial, &c. of Louis XVI. late King of France, and Marie Antoinette, his Queen. Embellished with copper-plate engravings., Louis XVI, King of France, 1754-1793., Marie Antoinette, Queen, consort of Louis XVI, King of France, 1755-1793., Reed, Abner, 1771-1866, engraver..

Extent

[2], 36 p., [2] leaves of plates : ill. ; 19 cm. (12mo)

Printed by Silvester Tiffany, for, and sold by, Thomas Spencer, at his book-store, in Market-Street, Albany,,. Lansingburgh [N.Y.]: :: 1794.. (Plates drawn and engraved by Abner Reed.)

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