procès-verbal might be drawn up and an inquiry
instituted. The story which reached Paris on
the following day, was that the guard had met
in the corridor two persons, one dressed in green
with an edging of gold and wearing a couteau
de chasse, and the other attired like an abbé,
but without bands, and his hair smoothed down,
who politely accosted him, inquiring if he could
obtain admission for them to witness the ceremony
of the grand concert, they being strangers
from the country. The guard replied that it
was not in his power to do so, but they persisted
in their request, and even offered him money
to oblige them. After a few moments' reflection
he desired them to follow him, and led the way
up-stairs, but they shortly stopped, saying they
must go back, as the passages were so intricate.
They accordingly retraced their steps, and the
guard returned with them to the corridor, where,
suspecting something wrong, he drew his sword
to arrest them. The two men then fell upon
him, broke his sword, and wounded him with
the couteau de chasse, leaving him in that state,
and then making their escape,"

This lame story occasioned a good deal of
discussion in Paris for a day or two, but "on
Saturday, the 9th," says Barbier, "it all fell
to the ground, for then the report came from
Versailles that the guard was a scamp, a fellow
who had formerly been a Protestant, but, by
abjuring his religion, had obtained the protection
of Madame Adélaïde" (one of the king's
daughters), " that he was a man given to inventions,
that he had perhaps been engaged in some
private pursuit, or that, even without a quarrel,
he had got up this story in order to show his zeal
and earn some reward, that he had no serious
wound, and that his coat was only cut on the
arm and one or two other places, which he might
have done himself; no abbé or any man in green
had been found, but it was added, as a certain
fact, that the guard himself was arrested and
sent to the Bastille." These rumours proved
correct, but from the great political prison, La
Chaux was transferred to the Grand Châtelet,
and thence brought to trial. There were no
witnesses against him, but a knife was found on
his person, the discovery of which led him to
acknowledge that the whole story was a
fabrication, and that he had invented it for the sole
purpose of getting a pension. The poor wretch, in
making this confession, wept bitterly, as well he
might, for the sentence passed on him was to
be broken alive on the wheel, having first made
the amende honorable before the Cathedral of
Notre-Dame, at the Louvre, opposite the gate
of the Tuileries, and at the Grève, in front of the
Hôtel de Ville, prior to the application of "the
question, ordinary and extraordinary," for the
crime of lèse-majesté in the second degree.
There were precedents for this cruel sentence,
two similar cases having occurred, one of them
in 1629, in the reign of Louis the Thirteenth,
in the Château of Fontainebleau, the culprit
being the Chevalier Georgian, who underwent
his punishment; the other case happened in
Henry the Third's reign, when the offender was
beheaded. La Chaux was then taken to the
Conciergerie, where he made an appeal,
demanding the assembly of the Chambers, Tournelle
and Grand' Chambre, " parce qu'il était bon
gentilhomme," and it was thought his punishment
would have been commuted to imprisonment
for life in one of the royal castles. He
did not, however, avail himself of his letters of
nobility, and no assembly of the Chambers took
place, but he was tried again at the Tournelle,
on the 11th of February, and instead of being
broken alive on the wheel, his sentence was to
be merely hung (" la Cour le condamne seulement
à être pendu)." On Thursday, the 14th
of February, the unhappy victim of a barbarous
law was brought out in the tombereau; " he
made his amende, and was then taken to the
Grève, where he was hung at half-past four
o'clock in the afternoon, in the presence of a
great number of people, and died with great
resignation." Labels were affixed to his back
and front, bearing these words: " Fabricateur
d'impostures contre la sûreté du roi et la
fidélité de la nation."

The "peine forte et dure" might with greater
justice have been applied in such a case as this:
"Feb. 26.—They write from Paris, that as
a wealthy citizen was lately walking in the
Thuilleries, a person came up to him and bid
him be on his guard, for that night he would be
murdered. The citizen retired after supper, as
usual, to his bedchamber, having furnished
himself with fire-arms. At midnight three men
actually entered the room. One of them he shot dead,
and with a second shot broke the arm of another.
The third ran away. The person killed proved to
be his own son, and the wounded person his
nephew, who is now in prison along with the
third assassin. This, says the writer, is the
second instance of the kind that has happened at
Paris within the last three months: to such a
height is licentiousness risen in that capital."

On the 15th of March will be published, price 5s. 6d.,
THE SIXTH VOLUME.

NEW WORK BY THE AUTHOR OF
THE WOMAN IN WHITE.
In Number 151 will be commenced
NO NAME.
BY WILKIE COLLINS.

MR. CHARLES DICKENS'S NEW READINGS.
On Thursday, 13th March, at ST. JAMES'S HALL, Piccadilly,
at 8 o'clock precisely, Mr. CHARLES DICKENS
will read
DAVID COPPERFIELD
(In Six Chapters),
AND
MR. BOB SAWYER'S PARTY,
FROM PICKWICK.