hurried by the officers of justice up the steps of the cube-form
structure of wood, painted of a blood-red, on which stood the dreadful
apparatus of death. To reach the top of the platform, to be fast bound
to a board, to be placed horizontally under the axe, and deprived of
life by its unerring blow, was, in the case of this miserable offender,
the work literally of a moment. It was indeed an awfully sudden transit
from time to eternity. He could only cry out, "_Adieu, mes amis_," and
he was gone. The severed head, passing through a red-coloured bag fixed
under, fell to the ground--the blood spouted forth from the neck like
water from a fountain--the body, lifted up without delay, was flung down
through a trap-door in the platform. Never did capital punishment more
quickly take effect on a human being; and whilst the executioner was
coolly taking out the axe from the groove of the machine, and placing
it, covered as it was with gore, in a box, the remains of the culprit,
deposited in a shell, were hoisted into a wagon, and conveyed to the
prison. In twenty minutes all was over, and the _Grande Place_ nearly
cleared of its thousands, on whom the dreadful scene seemed to have
made, as usual, the slightest possible impression--_Stevenson's Tour in
France, Switzerland, &c._

[2] The circumstances of the case were as follows:--Jean
Baptiste Michel, aged 36, a blacksmith, accompanied by a female
named Marie Anne Debeyst, aged 22, was proceeding from Brussels
to Vilvorde, one day in the month of March, 1824. In the
Alleverte, they overtook a servant girl, who was imprudent
enough to mention to them that her master had entrusted her
with a sum of money. Near Vilvorde, Michel and his paramour,
having formed their plan of assassination and robbery, rejoined
the poor girl, whom they had momentarily left, and violently
demanded the bag containing the gold and silver. The