If he does not carry quite another
memory of that transaction in the inmost recesses of his heart, he is
unworthy to reign, he is unworthy to live. In the chronicle of disgrace
he will have but this short tale told of him: "He was the first emperor
of his house that embraced a regicide; he was the last that wore the
imperial purple." Far am I from thinking so ill of this august
sovereign, who is at the head of the monarchies of Europe, and who is
the trustee of their dignities and his own.
What ferocity of character drew on the fate of Elizabeth, the sister of
King Louis the Sixteenth? For which of the vices of that pattern of
benevolence, of piety, and of all the virtues, did they put her to
death? For which of her vices did they put to death the mildest of all
human creatures, the Duchess of Biron? What were the crimes of those
crowds of matrons and virgins of condition, whom they mas sacred, with
their juries of blood, in prisons and on scaffolds? What were the
enormities of the infant king, whom they caused, by lingering tortures,
to perish in their dungeon, and whom if at last they dispatched by
poison, it was in that detestable crime the only act of mercy they have
ever shown?
What softening of character is to be had, what review of their social
situations and duties is to be taught by these examples to kings, to
nobles, to men of property, to women, and to infants? The royal family
perished because it was royal.
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