-absent in Normandy, indeed, he had been; but it was in following the clue of the very conspiracy, as a supposed accomplice of which the Duke was tried!

1

;

2d. M. Savary states that he had no share in the proceedings of the military commission, which was an open court, and at which he was, out of mere curiosity, a silent spectator. An open court! we echo M. Dupin's exclamation: an open court-at two o'clock in the morning in the donjon de Vincennes-and all its avenues guarded by M. Savary's gensdarmes!' As Buonaparte assured us the trial was fair, Savary pledges himself that the court was open to the public, and they are both, both honourable men.” Tan

But he took no part in the proceeding, and was a silent spectator, standing, as he tells us, behind the president's seat. The president tells us a different story? TIPO 59.

That president was General Hulin he had been a waiter at a lemonade shop; at the taking of the Bastile (or, as some say, after it) he had distinguished himself, and received a medal and the title of Vainqueur de la Bastille. He has been accused of hav ing had no small share in the massacres of the 10th of August and the 2d of September; but of the proceedings of so obscure a person it is not easy to produce any satisfactory proof, and we hope that he has none of that blood to answer for. He afterwards went into the army, and rose to some eminence, throughy as it would seem, the friendship of Murat. This, and the circum➡ stances of his former life, were perhaps the causes of his being selected as president of the court-martial; and his zeal and services on that lamentable occasion were subsequently rewarded with the important trust of succeeding Murat as Governor of Paris. On the restoration he vanished from public view; and no one would have believed that the Bourbons, who never for get and never forgive, would have tolerated the presence of the mock judge of the Duke d'Enghien we find, however, that he was residing, retired and unmolested, at Paris, when M. Savary's, insane pamphlet recalled him to public notice, and induced him to make some atonement to public opinion. He has published a short pamphlet, so modest, so feeling, so ingenuous, that he not only disarms our anger, but entitles himself to our commiseration. Our readers will judge of the tone of this work by the introductory sentences.

The unhappy affair of the Duke of Enghien has cost me near twenty years of deep sorrow.

Old-stricken with blindness-retired from the world-having now consolation but in the bosom of my family-my sorrow has been ag

That seems to be the fashionable word for deeds too monstrous for a distinct name,

gravated

gravated by a discussion which has re-produced, with offensive notoriety, scenes which, though never to be forgotten, were at least no longer the object of public debate.'-Explic. p. 1.

Let us now see what General Hulin says of Savary, who, it will be remembered, represents himself as standing behind the general's chair as a simple spectator. After acknowledging with great candour, and excusing, on the score of ignorance of the law and of the pressure of an overwhelming authority,* the irregularities of the proceedings, General Hulin states, that the court were so far from ordering or even expecting an immediate execution of the sentence, that,

Scarcely was it signed when I began a letter to the first consul, în which I conveyed to him, in obedience to the unanimous wish of the court, the desire expressed by the prince of an interview with the first consul, and further to conjure the first consul to remit the punishment, which the severity of our situation did not permit us to elude! lojt

It

t was at this moment that A MAN, (Savary) who had persisted in remaining in the court-room, and whom I should name without hesitation, if I did not recollect that even in attempting a defence for myself it does not become me to accuse another-"What are you doing there?" said this man, coming up to me. "I am," I replied, writing to the first consul, to convey to him the wish of the prisoner and the recommendation of the court.”—“ You have done your business,” said he, taking the pen out of my hand," and what follows is MINE." - for pet ise 14 juli

I confess that I thought at the moment, and so did several of my colleagues, that he meant to say that the conveying these sentiments to the first consul was his business. His answer thus understood left, us still the hope that the recommendation would reach the first consul. I only recollect that I ev I even at the moment felt a kind of vexation at seeing thus taken out of my hands the only agreeable circumstance of the painful situation in which I was placed.

we

Indeed, how could we imagine that a person had been placed about us with an order to violate all the provisions of the law?

I was in the hall, outside the council room, conversing about what had just occurred. Several knots of persons had got into private conversation was waiting for my carriage, which not being permitted (any more than those of the other members) to come into the inner court of the castle, delayed my departure and theirs. We were ourselyes shut in, and could not communicate with those without, (this is what M. Savary calls an open court,) when an explosion was heard-a terrible sound struck us to the hearts and froze them with terror, and fright.

Yes, I swear, in the name of myself and my colleagues, that this execution was not authorized by us; our sentence directed that copies should be sent to the minister of war, the grand judge, and the general governor of Paris.

One of the phrases is remarkable. Appointed to be judges, we were obliged to act as judges at the risk of being judged ourselves.”—p. 9.

'The

The latter alone could, according to law, direct the execution; the copies were not yet made they would occupy a considerable portion of the day. (If the copies, which could be made by twenty clerks, were to occupy a considerable, portion of the day, how could all the originals have been written by one hand in an hour?) On my return to Paris I should have waited on the governor,first con-on the sul-who knows? But all of a sudden this terrific explosion informed us that the prince was no more.

6

** We know not whether HE (Savary) who thus hurried on this dreadful execution had orders for doing so. If he had not, he alone is responsible; if he had, the court, which knew nothing of these orders, which itself was kept in confinement, (un open court!) the court, whose last resolution was in favour of the prince, could neither foresee nor prevent the catastrophe.'-Explic. p. 12. 14.

Without dwelling on General Hulin's defence of his own share in the fatal preliminaries, it is quite clear that THE MAN behind the chair was the immediate murderer; and that this MAN was the same Savary who affects to deplore that the dake was put to death by mistake; and who accuses M. de Talleyrand of hastened the execution, and of having suppressed a lette that might have led to mercy! We want language we should rather say no language is necessary to express the horror of every honest mind at such bloody duplicity.

But M. Savary. had not yet finished his task the grave, indeed, was ready-it had been dug before, the trial-the duke was condemned the road to mercy was shut, but he was still alive! no warrant had been given-no time was appointed for the execution.

Morning approached,' says M. Dupin, and Buonaparte would not permit Paris to learn, on awaking, that a prince of the house of Bourbon was in its neighbourhood and alice, even though he was in the dungeon of Vincennes,-Pièces Hist. p. 30.

What passed in the three dark hours which elapsed between the sentence and the execution is buried in the graves of the Bourbon and Buonaparte, and in the heart of M. Savaryser One thing alone is certain that, as at his trial, he was deprived of what the law expressly allowed, a legal adviser, so in his agony he was denied what never was before refused the consolations of religion. By what warrant, he was, in defiance of the general law and of the individual sentence itself, executed so suddenly, we cannot, as we have already stated, discover. General Hulin, as we have shown, knows no more than we do. But, M. Savary commanded! His account of the crisis is as follows: ed blood. 'The court deliberated a long time; it was not till two hours after the room was cleared that the sentence was known.

The officer who commanded the infantry of my regiment came with

deep

'deep emotion to tell me, that a party was required to execute the sentence I answered, GIVE IT."— Memoirs, p. 30.***

Nothing in the whole pamphlet has excited so much mdignation in France, as the cold-blooded laconism of this answer— GIVE IT "—these two dry words were, as far as we are informed, the only death-warrant of the descendant of so many kings and of so many heroes.

The trial, as we have seen, had been faire the court open the execution too was public. He was shot between five and six o'clock in the morning of a foggy 21st of March, in the ditch of the fortress, about fourteen feet below the level of the ground ! M. Savary, who confesses nothing else, admits that he designated the spot--the reasons of his choice are admirable !

**"Where shall the party of execution n be placed?” asked the officer — where,” I answered," you can hurt nobody," for already the inhabitants of the populous neighbourhood of Paris were proceeding along the roads to the several markets.'- Memoirs, p. 30.1 941 vit of dojih 140 the tender heart of M. Savary his dearest anxiety is not to hurt an innocent person! but, unfortunately for this? pretence, every inhabitant of Paris knows, that no road passes within a mile of the front of the castle; and still more unfortunately, the grave had been dug on the spot early the preceding evening, while the unconscious victim was at supper. 1M2Savary says the grave was dug between the sentence and execution, better evidence gives the fact as we have stated it; but whenso'ever dug, if dug before the execution, it contradiots M. Savary's story. But M. Savary tells us a more important and affecting circumstance it was not till he was brought down the back stairs -suddenly into the ditch, that the prince heard his sentenced they had ingeniously managed this agreeable surprise for him the sentence was, at the same minute, read and executedio For this refinement of atrocity we were quite unprepared but it must be admitted, that it is the natural climax of this dreadful series of barbarity. 177 P is vino for pɔrvepos end visvee M 3661 Another circumstance, though of less importance, is too curious to be passed over. Savary tells us that Buonaparte did not intend that the duke should have been shot that night-ways that it was done without his knowledge; and the proof he gives of this extravagant assertion is, that he, Savary, on returning to town after the execution, met the privy counsellor Real going leisurely down to Vincennes to examine the prisoner. If the fact were true, it would prove no more than that Buonaparte did not acquaint Real that the duke was to be murdered that night. But it seems that even this worthless fact is not true; for Mehée de la Touche, who was deeply, and we must add disgracefully, im

plicated

plicated in the whole affair, attests, on his own evidence, and, what is better, upon that of all Real's servants and clerks, that on that never-to-be-forgotten day, Real did not leave his own house till the afternoon, and was consequently not to be met near Vincennes at seven o'clock in the morning. We have some little curiosity (though the fact itself be of no value) to see what Savary will say to this direct contradiction.

Let us now, in justice to M. Savary, state that his defence is in two points successful; he proves that he did not fasten a lantern to the prince's breast, as a mark for the executioners—but, admitting this, we must add that no one, to our knowledge, ever said that he did. We have, indeed, seen it asserted that the prince -himself had so fixed the lantern-be may have done so-there was, M. Savary confesses, a lantern in the ditch, and such an act would be consistent with the whole of the modest yet intrepid conduct of the duke; but certainly M. Savary did not go down into the ditch to fix the lantern; he stood on the parapet and only commanded the troops who fired at the bosom of the victim, which M. Savary evidently thinks is less horrid than firing at a lantern

He defends himself also successfully against another imputation, which we never before heard of, his having stolen the prince's watch; Is it possible,' he indignantly asks, that any > one can suspect me, a general in the French army, a minister of state, of having stolen a watch? We readily answer-no; and we are not the less slow in this acquittal from a fact stated by ourselves so long ago as July, 1817, namely, that when the body of the illustrious victim was, in 1816, removed for Christian burial from the ditch in which M. Savary had huddled it, his watch was found. No; M. Savary only took his life-his watch he spared....

The horror of all the rest of this melancholy detail stifles the ridicule which the disproval of these two fancied accusations would have otherwise excited; and the result of the whole discussion is, that M. Savary has confirmed not only all that he was suspected of, but a great deal more; and that he has disproved nothing but two contemptible circumstances of which he had never been