M. de B----, a
French Royalist officer, was able to use a well-known device and so
effect an escape from imminent death.

On a certain memorable morning, sixty-nine brave soldiers were executed
by the Republicans. The story of these deaths, and of one remarkable
escape, is related by a fellow-prisoner who witnessed the scene.

At nine o'clock in the morning the prisoners were startled by the
entrance of a Republican officer, who held a piece of paper in his hand,
and was attended by an escort of about twenty soldiers. As he came in he
announced:

'Citizens! you are to accompany me. Those whose names I shall call will
not return to this place. As I read out the roll, let each one named
range himself on the right-hand side.'

The men obeyed this order in silence; no one knew what it meant, and all
feared the worst. Only two names were excepted from the roll; the other
prisoners, seventy in number, stood in line, awaiting their unknown
fate.

'The word was given to march,' says the narrator, 'and the whole
seventy-two of us, guarded by a large number of Republican soldiers,
filed out from the gloomy gaol. We were taken to the seashore, where a
halt was made; then the officer in charge read the death-sentence,
adding, as he turned to us--the two whose names were excepted from the
fatal list--these words:

'"These others will not be sentenced until further evidence has been
heard, but they will be present at the execution of those condemned."

'The unhappy men were then and there shot, one by one. This work of
horror went on for an hour, and we, whose time had not yet come, were
forced to stand by, fully expecting that the same fate would shortly be
our own.

'Sixty-nine had fallen, and at last came the turn of De B----. The four
men told off to shoot him said, "We are extremely sorry to do this, but
it is the law, and we cannot help ourselves; and now, if you have any
money about you, please bestow it upon us."

'A happy thought flashed through the Royalist's brain. "I have twenty
guineas," he replied calmly, "but I do not desire to cause any jealousy
amongst you. I will therefore fling down the coins, and let each one get
what he can."

'With a dexterous movement of his hand he sent the golden coins spinning
in all directions. The soldiers, in their greedy eagerness, forgot the
prisoner for a moment, and scrambled for the money; this was what M. de
B---- had reckoned on. As he was an excellent runner, taking