justify an infraction of decreed laws; and that, too, on such
indications, to do away with a condemnation legally pronounced by a
jury, would be to overset all ideas of justice and equality before
the law.

The right of pardon had been abolished; and Lesurques had neither
resources nor hope. He bore his fate with firmness and resignation, and
wrote, on the day of his execution, this note to his wife:--

"_Ma bonne Amie_,--There is no eluding ones destiny, I was fated to be
judicially murdered. I shall at least bear it with proper courage. I
send you my locks of hair; when our children are grown up, you will
divide it among them; it is the only heritage I can leave them."

He addressed also a letter to Dubosq through the newspapers. "You, in
whose place I am about to perish, content yourself with the sacrifice of
my life. Should you ever be brought to justice, remember my three
children covered with opprobrium--remember my wife reduced to despair
and do not longer prolong their misfortunes."


VI.--THE EXECUTION.


The 10th March 1797, Lesurques was led to the scaffold. He wished to be
dressed completely in white, as a symbol of his innocence. He wore
pantaloons and frock-coat of white cotton, and his shirt-collar turned
down over his shoulders. It was the day before Good Friday, and he
expressed regret that he had not to die on the morrow. In passing from
the prison _de la Conciergerie_ to the _Place de la Greve_, where the