THE MASSACRE OF SEPTEMBER 1792.

Bush Advocate, Volume V, Issue 354, 16 August 1890, Page 9

THE MASSACRE OF SEPTEMBER 1792.

(THE BATUBDA.Y BEYIISW.) With regard to the numbdr of prisoners killed in Paris in 1792 accounts are conflicting. The total may be estimated as balancingbetween 1,485, as reported by Granier de Cassagnac, aud 1,368, as by Terasux ; but then there were nearly 400 others who were put to death in the neig-hboorhood of Paris and some 3 r OOO in various parts of Franco. As regard* the actual number of the prisoners killed in Paris, wo may take a middle course, and bo pretty sear tho mark if w« make it circa 1,300 persons, divided, approximately, among tho various prisons as follows : — Abbaye, 216 ; Force, 16-i ; Ghatelot, 21G; Conoiergerie, 378; Beraadino, 73 ; Cannes and St. Firmin, 240 5 Biofitro, 179 ; Salpetr&ro, 43. It is rather enrioufl that, with the sole exception of two women taken from the extremes of society — th« Princess de Lamballe at La Forte' and the flower g-irl at the Gonciergerie— the women were everywhere spared, save at the Sulpetrioro, wnero somo thirty-five to forty- five female prisoners, who had about as muoh t©. do with the 10th of Augnst as babefc unborn; being mostly old women and young girls of tho working cksEgs, were murdered. Tho unfortunate flower girl of the Palais Royal, it seems, owed her imprisonment to a guardsman whose advances she had scornfully rejected. Tbiroigne do Mlricourt evidently had a grudge against her, for sho inspired the (ravaUhurs to put her to th« moet awful of deaths, in which red-hot irona played a conspicuous part. Bnval, wh«. witnessed the appalling scene, 6ays, " Th6roigne seemed mad with fury, shouting and applauding each fresh horror perpetrated on the screaming woman, whose cries tould bo heard en tho Pont St. Michel." On the 7th of September the clothes and trhiketa of tho massacred were sold by public auction, and even in tho announcement that this sale is about to take place we find evideaco of tho hypocrisy with which everything cenncoted with this monstrous business was transacted. "We have seized, ' ' says the official announcement, *' the gooda nnd offeots of tho persons •ondemnod for treason against the liberty of tho French people by the tribunal of tho said people, assembled, solemnly 2nd Soptember, 1702, fourth year of liberty, fourth of equality. " Then follows a list of the articles, and the paper conoludos with the statemout that a sum of 165 livro-s found upon tho various bodies at the Abbaye had been delivered over to May ard for certain purposes. ' ' The certain purposes were doubtless tho distribution of the coin among tho sinister workmen. Tho sale j of thia property realised 375 livres. Mr. Garlyle declares that the travailkurs did not rob tho dead. It is perhaps a fact that they did not tlo bo either at La Forco or the Abba ye ; but, as there is no traoe of them having been any auction of the effects of victims at the other prisons, we m:iy reasonably conclude that tiie travaflleurs kept for themselves whatever thoy found there. There is official proof extant that they did so. Tho sule of the effects from. La-Forco amounted to 3,G47 livros, and took plaoe on tho sth aud Gth of October. A quantity of clothing of a woman and various objects of female adornment wero sold on this occasion, and most possibly belonged to Mmo. de Lamballe. At any rate, wo find Claude-Louis Toscan, her agent, among tho principal purchasers. He had been ordorad to secure every possible relic of her for her broken-hearted father-in-law, the Duo do Penthievre. The head of the luckless Princess was taken to Madame Tu.ssaud, who made a cast of it before its pretty I'eature.s were hardened in death. She mentions in her curious memoirs tho beauty of tho hair. Some scraps oi" tho body were secured by tho Duke, and honourably buried.