he lowest sphere of fortune,
had resolution to face the greatest dangers, and enthusiasm sufficient
to sustain, without shrinking, all the tortures which the cruelty of man
could invent, or his crimes render necessary. The name of this fanatic
was Robert Francis Damien, born in the suburb of St. Catharine, in the
city of Arras. He had lived in the service of several families, whence
he was generally dismissed on account of the impatience, the melancholy,
and sullenness of his disposition. So humble was the station of a
person, who was resolved to step forth from obscurity, and, by one
desperate effort, draw upon himself the attention of all Europe. On the
fifth day of January, as the king was stepping into his coach to return
to Trianon, whence he had that day come to Versailles, Damien, mingling
among his attendants, stabbed him with a knife on the right side,
between the fourth and fifth ribs. His majesty applying his hand
immediately to his side, cried out, "I am wounded! Seize him; but do not
hurt him." Happily the wound was not dangerous; as the knife taking an
oblique direction, missed the vital parts. As for the assassin, he made
no attempts to escape; but suffering himself quietly to be seized, was
conveyed to the guard-room, where, being interrogated if he committed
the horrid action, he boldly answered in the affirmative. A process
against him was instantly commenced at Versailles: many persons,
supposed accessaries to the design upon the king's life, were sent to
the Bastile; the assassin himself was put to the torture, and the
most excruciating torments were applied, with intention to extort a
confession of the reasons that could induce him to so execrable an
attempt upon his sovereign. Incisions were made into the muscular parts
of his legs, arms, and thighs, into which boiling oil was poured. Every
refinement on cruelty, that human invention could suggest, was practised
without effect; nothing could overcome his obstinacy; and his silence
was construed into a presumption, that he must have accomplices in
the plot. To render his punishment more public and conspicuous, he
was removed to Paris, there to undergo a repetition of all his former
tortures, with such additional circumstances as the most fertile and
cruel dispositions could devise for increasing his misery and torment.
Being conducted to the Concergerie, an iron bed, which likewise served
for a chair, was prepared for him, and to this he was fastened