A Trip to Paris in July and August 1792 Part 2

The proper name of the club is, _Society of the Friends of the Const.i.tution_. There are three or four other societies of less note.

The _Quai_, which was formerly called _des Theatins_ is at present named _Quai Voltaire_, in honor of that philosopher, who died there in the house of the Marquis de _Villette_, in 1778.

The street which was formerly called _Platriere_, and in which the general post-office is situated, is called _Rue Jean Jaques Rousseau_, in honour of this writer, who resided some time in this street. I found him here in 1776, and he copied some music for me; he had no other books at that time than an English _Robinson Crusoe_ and an Italian _Ta.s.so's Jerusalem_. He died 1st July, 1778, very soon after Voltaire, at the country seat of le Marquis _de Girardin_ about ten leagues from Paris; and is buried there, in a small island.

And the street which was formerly called _Chaussee d'Antin_ is now named _Rue de Mirabeau_, in honour of the late patriot of that name.

The church _des Innocens_ was pulled down in 1786, and the vast _cimetiere_ (burying ground) was filled up. Every night, during several months, carts were employed in carrying the bones found there, to other grounds out of Paris; it is now a market for vegetables. Very near this place was a fountain, which is mentioned in letters patent so long ago as 1273. It was rebuilt with extraordinary magnificence in 1550, repaired in 1708, and at last, in 1788, carefully removed to the center of the market, where it now stands.

The new _Quai de Gesvres_ was constructed in 1787, and all the shops which formed a long narrow alley for foot pa.s.sengers only, were destroyed.

At this time no person was permitted to walk in any other part of the _Tuileries_ gardens than in the terrace of the _Feuillans_, which is parallel to the _Rue St. Honore_, and under the windows of the _National a.s.sembly_; the only fence to the other part of the garden was a blue ribband extended between two chairs.

Hitherto c.o.c.kades of silk had been worn, the _aristocrats_ wore such as were of a paler blue and red, than those worn by the _democrats_, and the former were even distinguished by their carriages, on which a cloud was painted upon the arms, which entirely obliterated them, (of these I saw above thirty in the evening _promenade_, in the _Bois de Boulogne_:) but on the 30th of July, every person was compelled by the people to wear a linen c.o.c.kade, without any distinction in the red and blue colours.

EXECUTION OF TWO CRIMINALS, WITH A BEHEADING MACHINE.

ON the 4th of August a criminal was beheaded, in the _Place de Greve_. I did not see the execution, because, as the hour is never specified, I might have waited many hours in a crowd, from which there is no extricating one's self. I was there immediately after, and saw the machine, which was just going to be taken away. I went into a coffee-house and made a drawing, which is here engraven. It is called _la Guillotine_, from the name of the person who first brought it into use in Paris: that at _Lisle_ is called _le Louison_, for a similar reason. In English it is termed a maiden.[10]

[Note 10: Mr. Pennant, in the second volume of his Tour in Scotland, has given a long account of such a machine, from which the following particulars are taken. "It was confined to the limits of the forest of Hardwick, or the eighteen towns and hamlets within its precincts. The execution was generally at Halifax; Twenty five criminals suffered during the reign of Queen Elizabeth; the records before that time were lost. Twelve more were executed between 1623 and 1650, after which it is supposed the privilege was no more exerted.----This machine is now destroyed, but there is one of the same kind, in a room under the Parliament house, at Edinburgh, where it was introduced by the Regent Morton, who took a model of it as he pa.s.sed through Halifax, and at length suffered by it himself. It is in form of a painters easel, and about ten feet high: at four feet from the bottom is a cross-bar, on which the felon laid his head, which was kept down by another placed above. In the inner edges of the frame are grooves; in these is placed a sharp axe, with a vast weight of lead, supported at the summit by a peg; to that peg is fastened a cord, which the executioner cutting, the axe falls, and beheads the criminal. If he was condemned for stealing a horse or a cow, the string was tied to the beast, which pulled out the peg and became the executioner."]

I have seen the following seven engravings of such an instrument. The most ancient is engraven on wood, merely outlines, and very badly drawn; it is in _Petrus de Natalibus Catalogus Sanctorum, 1510_.

There was a German translation of some of _Petrarch's_ Works, published in 1520; this contains an engraving in wood, representing an execution, with a great number of figures, correctly drawn.

_Aldegrever_, in 1553, published another print on this subject.

The fourth is in _Achillis Bocchii Quaestiones Symbolicae_, 1550.

There is one in _Cats's_ Dutch Emblems, 1650.

And the two last are in _Golfrieds's_ Historical Chronicles, in German, folio, 1674. These five last are engraven on copper.

In all these representations the axe is either straight or semicircular, but always horizontal. The sloping position of the French axe appears to be the best calculated for celerity.

Machines of this kind are at present made use of for executions throughout all France, and criminals are put to death in no other manner.

The following is the account of an execution, which I had from an eye-witness.

The crowd began to a.s.semble at ten in the morning, and waited, exposed to the intense heat of the sun in the middle of July, till four in the afternoon, when the criminals, a Marquis and a Priest, were brought, in two coaches; they were condemned for having forged _a.s.signats_.

The Marquis ascended the scaffold first; he was as pale as if he had already been dead, and he endeavoured to hide his face, by pulling his hair over it; there were two executioners, dressed in black, on the scaffold, one of which immediately tied a plank of about 18 inches broad, and an inch thick, to the body of the Marquis, as he stood upright, fastening it about the arms, the belly, and the legs; this plank was about four feet long, and came almost up to his chin; a priest who attended, then applied a crucifix to his mouth, and the two executioners directly laid him on his belly on the bench, lifted up the upper part of the board which was to receive his neck, adjusted his head properly, then shut the board and pulled the string which is fastened to the peg at the top of the machine, which lifted up a latch, and down came the axe; the head was off in a moment, and fell into a basket which was ready to receive it, the executioner took it out and held it up by the hair to show the populace, and then put it into another basket along with the body: very little blood had issued as yet.

The Priest was now taken out of the coach, from which he might have seen his companion suffer; the b.l.o.o.d.y axe was hoisted up and he underwent the same operation exactly. Each of these executions lasted about a minute in all, from the moment of the criminal's ascending the scaffold to that of the body's being taken away. It was now seen that the body of the Marquis made such a violent expiration that the belly raised the lid of the basket it was in, and the blood rushed out of the great arteries in torrents.

The windows of the _Place de Greve_ were, as usual on such occasions, filled with ladies.[11] Many persons were performing on violins, and trumpets, in order to pa.s.s the time away, and to relieve the tediousness of expectation.

[Note 11: Mrs. Robinson tells me, that when she was at Paris, a few years ago, her _valet de place_, came early one morning, informing her there would be a _grand spectacle_, and wanted to know if he should hire a place for her. This superb spectacle was no other than the execution of two murderers, who were to be broken alive on the wheel, in the Place de Greve, on that day. She however says, that she declined going.]

I have on several other days seen felons sitting on stools on this scaffold, with their hands tied, and their arms and bodies fastened to a stake by a girth, bareheaded, with an inscription over their heads, specifying their crimes and punishment; they are generally thus exposed during five or fix hours, and then sent to prison, or to the gallies according to the sentence.

VERSAILLES. BOTANY. SOUNDING MERIDIANS.

I went once to Versailles; there is hardly any thing in the palace but the bare walls, a very few of the looking-gla.s.ses, tapestry, and large pictures remaining, as it has now been near two years uninhabited. I crossed the great ca.n.a.l on foot; there was not a drop of water in it.

In the _Menagerie_ I saw the Rhinoceros, which has been 23 years there; there is likewise a lion, with a little dog in the same den, as his companion, and a zebra.

The collection of orange trees cannot be matched in any country where these trees do not grow naturally; the number is about six hundred, the largest trunk is about fifteen inches in diameter, and the age of the most ancient of these trees exceeds three centuries.

The _Jardin Potager_, or kitchen garden, is of fifty acres, divided into about five or six and twenty small gardens, of one, two, or three acres, walled round, both for shelter to the plants, and for training fruit trees against. One of these gardens, of two acres, was entirely allotted to the culture of melons, and these were all of the warty _rock cantalupe_ kind, and were growing under hand-gla.s.ses, in the manner of our late cuc.u.mbers for pickling.

The season had been so unfavourable for wall-fruit, that (as the gardener told me) all these gardens had yielded less than a dozen peaches and nectarines.

The fruit was sent regularly to the Royal Family in Paris.

There is a botanical garden at the _Pet.i.t Trianon_ in the park of Versailles, but the person who shews it was out of the way, so that I did not see it.

I pa.s.sed several mornings in the Botanical National Garden, (_ci-devant Jardin du Roi_.) That part of the garden which contains the botanical collection is separated from the other part, which is open to the public at large, by iron palisades. The names of the plants are painted on square plates of tin, stuck in the ground on the side of each plant. I saw a _Strelitzia_, which was there called _Ravenala_, (probably from some modern botanist's name) _Mr. Thouin_, who superintends this garden, said to me, "We will not have any aristocratic plants, neither will we call the new Planet by any other name than that of its discoverer, _Herschel_." I neglected to ask him why the plant might not retain its original and proper name of _Heliconia Bihai_?

[Ill.u.s.tration: ANASTATICA or ROSE of JERICHO]

I here found the _Anastatica Hierochuntica_ or _Rose of Jericho_, which I sought for in vain for several years, and advertised for in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, for January 1791, and in the newspapers. Many descriptions and figures of this plant are to be found in old books, and the dried plants are frequently to be met with. Old _Gerard_ very justly says, "The coiner spoiled the name in the mint, for of all plants that have been written of, there is not any more unlike unto the rose." The annexed figure represents a single plant; it had been transplanted into a deep pot, which had been filled with earth, so as to make it appear like two plants. The stalks are shrubby, the leaves are fleshy, and of a glaucous or sea-green colour. The _corolla_ consists of four very small white petals. Its scientific description may be found in _Linnaeus_[12].

One of the _silicles_ is drawn magnified.

[Note 12: _Genera plantarum_, 798.]

Mr. Thouin pointed out to me a new and very beautiful species of _Zinnia_, of which the flower is twice the size of that of the common sort, and of a deep purple colour: a new _verbasc.u.m_, from the Levant; it was about four feet high, the leaves were almost as woolly as those of the _Stachys lanata_, and terminated in a point like a spur; it had not yet flowered. And a new _solanum_, with spines the colour of gold.

He recommended the flower of the _spilanthus brasiliana_, which our nurserymen call _Verbesina_ _acmella_ as an excellent dentifrice.

I also found here the _amethystea, coerulea_: this annual has been lost in England above twenty years.[13]

[Note 13: The seeds which are sold in the London shops, for those of this plant, are those of the _hyssopus bracteatis_.]

The _datura fastuosa_, the French call _Trompette du jugement a trois fleurs l'une dans l'autre_; I have myself raised these with triple flowers, both purple and white, though some of our nurserymen pretended the flowers were never more than double. The _anthemis arabica_, a very singular and pretty annual. A _zinnia hybrida_, which last has not yet been cultivated in England. Twenty-two sorts of _medicago polymorpha, (snails and hedgehogs_) of these I had seen only four in England.

Here was a small single moss-rose plant, in a pot, which is the only one I ever saw in France. The air is too hot for those roses, and for the same reason none of the American plants, such as the _magnolia_ (tulip tree) _kalmia_, &c. thrive in France, though kept in pots in the shade and well watered; the heat of the atmosphere dries the trunk of these trees. But there are many other plants, to the growth of which the climate is much more favourable than it is in England. In the open part of this garden are a great number of _bignonia-catalpa_ trees, which were then in flower, resembling horse-chesnut flowers at a distance, but much larger and more beautiful; and many _nerium oleander_ trees, in wooden chests; several of these trees are about eight feet high and the trunk a foot in diameter; they were then full of flowers of all the sorts, single and double, red and white; these are placed in the green-house in the winter.

On a mount in this garden is a _meridien sonnant_ (sounding meridian) this is an iron mortar which holds four pounds of gunpowder, it is loaded every morning, and exactly at noon the sun discharges the piece by means of a burning gla.s.s, so placed that the _focus_ at that moment fires the powder in the touch-hole. The first meridian that was made of this kind is in the garden of the _Palais Royal_, at the top of one of the houses; I could not see it, but it is thus described in the _Paris Guide_: "The touch-hole of the cannon is two inches long and half a line (the twentieth part of an inch) broad, this length is placed in the direction of the meridian line. Two _transoms_ or _cross-staves_ placed vertically on a horizontal plane, support a _lens_ or burning gla.s.s, which, by their means, is fixed according to the sun's height monthly, so as to cause the _focus_ to be exactly over the touch-hole at noon. It is said to have been invented by _Rousseau_." Small meridians of this sort are sold in the shops; these are dials of about a foot square, engraven on marble, with a little bra.s.s cannon and a _lens_.

The market for plants and flowers in pots, and for nosegays, is kept on the _Quai de la Megisserie_, twice a week, very early in the morning; the following were the most abundant: _Nerium_ double flowering pomegranate, _vinca rosea_, (Madagascar periwinkle) _p.r.i.c.kly lantana, peruvian heliotropium_ (turnsole) tuberoses, with very large and numerous single and double flowers, and very great quant.i.ties of common sweet basil, which is much used in cookery.