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The next morning as soon as he got out of bed, having made his meditation on his knees, and committed himself to God as his manner was, he sat down on a low chair before the hearth, and having combed bis head, it not being yet light, he perceived one of the sticks still on fire; when he had dressed himself, he found part of a bundle of brushwood, and putting it on the stick that was burning, he kneeled down, and began to blow it, in order to kindle the whole; by the glimmering light of the fire, which brightened as he blew it, he fancied he saw on each side of his face, a great number of consecrated wafers or hosts, and below his face a roll of the same size with that which the priest elevates at the celebration of muss. Soon after he became a lay-brother of the Fuillants, but his habit was afterwards taken from him, upon account of these visions, which gave him inexpressible concern.

While his mind was in this state, he often reflected on the King's breach of promise, in not compelling the Hugonots to return to the catholic church, and determined to go to Paris to admonish him not to neglect this duty any longer.

He accordingly set out from Angouleme, and in fourteen days arrived at Paris; when he came thither, he went several times to the Louvre, and applied to many persons to introduce him to his majesty, but without effect. Among others he applied to Father Daubigny, a Jesuit, after having heard him celebrate mass, at a house of that order near St. Anthony's Gate; to Daubigny he not only related his purpose to speak with the King, but his visions, and his desire to be restored to his order, or to be admitted among the Jesuits. Daubigny having heard all that he had to say, advised him to put all those things out of his head, to pray to God, and tell his beads.

Ravaillac pondered this answer in his mind, but could not relinquish his purpose of speaking to the King, which, however, finding it impossible to execute, he went to Daubigny a second time, and shewed him a little knife on which there were a heart and a cross, telling him at the same time, that the King should be disposed to make war against the Hugouots.

Daubigny regarded him as a lunatic, dismissed him with some slight anwer, and he still loitered about the Palace, in hopes of seeing the King.

It happened that some days afterwards, he met his Majesty in his coach near St. Innocent's Church, and his desire to speak to him growing more ardent, at the prospect of success, he ran to the coach-side, and cried out,Sire, I speak to you in the name of our Lord Jesus, and of the Holy Virgin.' but the King put him back with a little stick, and would not hear him. After this repulse, he conceived a design to kill the King, utterly despairing of producing any effect on his Majesty by admonition; but after having revolved this project often in his mind, he came to no determination as to the execution of it, and after some time returned back to Angouleme.

Here he continued in a state of great solicitude and anxiety, sometimes considering his project to kill the King as meritorious, and sometimes as unlawful, at length, however, he went to hear mass at the monastery of the Franciscan Friars, in Angouleme, and going afterwards to confession, he confessed, among other things, an intention to murder, but did not say his intention was to murder the King; nor did the Confessor ask a more particular account of the fault.

His mind being still restless and perturbed, he went again to Paris, and when he entered the city, his resolution to kill the King returned strong upon him; he therefore took a lodging in the suburbs of St. James's, that he might be near the Louvre. This lodging, however, for some reason he did not like, and went to a neighbouring inn, with a view to hire a chamber there till he could execute his project. It hap pened that in this inn that there was no room for him, but while he was talking to the man that kept it, he cast his eye upon a knife, sharp pointed and double edged, with a whalebone handle, that lay on the table, and a thought instantly struck him that this knife was very fit for the execution of his design; he therefore took an opportunity to convey it away under his doublet, and having caused a new handle of buck'shorn to be put to it, he kept it in a bag in his pocket near three weeks.

But after this, he faltered in his resolution, and at length renouncing it a second time, he set out on his journey home, and as he went along, broke the point of the knife with which he had intended to commit the murder, against a cart near the garden of Chantaloup; but when he came to Estamps, he heard some soldiers talking in an inu, at which he put up for refreshment, about an intention of the King to make war upon the Pope, and transfer the seat of the Holy-See to Paris. Upon this, his resolution instantly and irresistibly returned; he went out of the house immediately, and having sharpened the point of the knife that he had broken, by rubbing it on a stone, he took the way back to Paris.

After he came to Paris a third time, he associated only with Friars of his own country, but to them he did not reveal his purpose, knowing, that whenever the public is concerned in any confession, the priest is obliged to reveal it." He seems, however, still to have been in some degree irresolute, for in his confession to a Franciscan Friar he asked, whether if a man was assaulted with a temptation to kill a King, and should confess it to the penitentiary, the penitentiary would be under the necessity of revealing it; but to this question, he received no an swer, being interrupted just as he had put it, by another Friar of the order.

Though he did not again relinquish his purpose, yet he still doubted whether it was not sinful, so that he would not receive the holy communion, after he had determined to commit the fact, lest this resolution having rendered him unworthy the body of his Lord, he should receive it to his damnation.

Having no hope of getting admission to the King in the Palace, he watched with unwearied assiduity at the gate for his coming out; and having at last, on the seventeenth of May, 1610, seen him into his coach, he followed it to the place where he had before attempted to speak to him, and been repulsed; here the coach was stopped by two carts, and Ravaillac seeing the King lean on one side to speak to M. Epernon, who was with him in the coach, was so transported with enthusiastic phrenzy, that he thought he heard a voice say to him in an emphatic tone, now is the time, make haste, or it will be past;' upon which he ran up to the coach, and putting one foot on the spoke of the wheel, raised himand drawing his knife at the same time, struck the King in the side, but finding that the knife stopped against one of the ribs, and did

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not penetrate the King's body, he repeated the stroke, and gave him a mortal wound near the same place.

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The King crying out that he was slain, the attention of those about him was immediately turned on Ravaillac, who was instantly seized by one Paul Noster, an exempt of the guards, and protected from the rage of others, who would have cut him to pieces on the spot.

When he was searched, there was found upon him a paper, on which was painted the Arms of France with a Lion on each side, one holding a key, the other a sword, over which he had written in a distich the following sentence:

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• Do not suffer the name of God to be profaned in thy

presence.'

There was also found a rosary, and a piece of costmary root in the shape of a heart, which he had obtained as a charm to cure him of a fever, from the Capuchins, who assured him, that there was in the inside of it, a piece of the real cross of Jesus Christ, which, however, upon breaking it, proved to be false.

After some days, he was examined by the President and several commissioners of the parliament, concerning his motives, and his accomplices; of his motives, he gave the same account that has been given above, and steadily, and uniformly denied that he had any accomplice or abettor.

During his examination he often wept, and said, that though he believed at the time when he killed the King, that it was a meritorious act, yet he was now convinced that he was permitted to fall into that delusion as a punishment for his sins; he expressed the utmost contrition for his fault, and implored God to give him grace sufficient to continue till death in good faith, lively hope and perfect charity.

Being still urged to confess his accomplices, he replied with some indignation, that he was incapable of undertaking for money, an act, which he believed to be wicked, much less an act so heinous as the murder of his Prince. He answered all other questions with great calmness and humility, and when he signed his confession, he wrote under his name these lines:

Que toujours en mon cœur.

Jesus soit le vainqueur.

In my heart let Jesus be always conqueror.

In a subsequent examination he was confronted with Daubigny, whe denied that Ravaillac had ever spoken to him on any account. Ravail lac however, insisted on the truth of what he had alledged, though at the same time he declared he thought Daubigny a good man, and that on this occasion his fear prevented him from declaring the truth.

But notwithstanding the constancy and uniformity with which he denied having any adviser, abettor, or associate, he was ordered to be put to the torture of the Brodequin.

The Brodequin is a strong wooden box, in the form of a boot, just big enough to contain both the legs of the criminal, which are put into

it, and a wooden wedge is then driven in with a mallet between the knees, and after that is forced quite through, a second of a larger size is applied, and sometimes a third, in the same manner.

This unhappy creature being sworn, was placed on a wooden bench, and his legs put into this machine.

The first wedge being driven, he cried out God have mercy on my soul, and pardon the crime I have committed; I never disclosed my intention to any one.'

When the second wedge was driven, he said, with horrid cries and shrieks- I am a sinner, I know no more than I have declared, I beseech the court not to drive me to despair: Oh, God! accept these torments in satisfaction for my sins!'

The third wedge was then driven lower near his feet, at which an universal sweat covered his body, and he fainted. Being quite speech-less, he was released, some water thrown upon his face, and wine forced down his throat, by which he soon recovered, and was conducted to chapel by the executioner.

He was then left with two doctors of the Sorbonne, that they might perform the duties of their office with him, and to them he again declared upon oath, that he had said all he knew, and that no one had incited him to commit the murder.

At three in the afternoon, May 27, 1610, he was brought from the chapel and put into a tumbril, when the crowd was so great, that it was with the utmost difficulty the archers could force a passage; and as soon as the prisoner appeared, that vast multitude began to load him with

execrations.

When he had ascended the scaffold, the two Doctors urged him to think of his salvation now at the close of life, and to confess all he knew; to which he only answered as he had done before. Fire and Brimstone being put to his right hand, holding the knife with which he had stabbed the king, while his breast and other fleshy parts of his body were tearing with red hot pincers, he renewed his cries and prayers. Afterwards, by intervals, melted lead and scalding oil were poured upon his wounds; during which he shrieked aloud, and continued his cries and ejaculations.

He was then drawn by four horses, for half an hour, by intervals, while the people of all ranks continued their curses. Several persons laid hold of the ropes, and pulled them with the utmost eagerness; and one of the noblesse, who was near the criminal, alighted from his horse, that it might be put in the place of one which was tired with drawing him. At length, when he had been drawn for a full hour by the horses, without being dismembered, the people, rushing on in crowds, threw themselves upon him, and with swords, knives, sticks, and other weapons, they struck, tore, and mangled his limbs; and violently forcing them from from the executioner, they dragged him through the streets with the utmost eagerness and rage, and burnt them in different parts of the city.

His Parents were banished the kingdom, never more to return on pain of immediate death; and his whole kindred ordered to renounce the name of Ravaillac, that it might never more be heard in France.

Whether Ravaillac's torments were greater than those of Balthazar Gerrard, or not, is a question; but certain it is he bore them with much less constancy, for he roared out in a terrible manner, whereas the other scarcely uttered a groan!

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Travelled about twelve years ago. After having traversed part of our Southern Provinces, I arrived at that great chain of mountains which separates us from Spain. I stopped there in a delightful solitude, and hired a pretty little house, determined on passing the

summer.

In my peaceful cot I heard only the majestic voice of nature; the striking and rapid fall of the cascades and torrents; the lowings of the flocks dispersed in the meadows, the rustic sound of the flageolet, the pipe, and the rural airs the young shepherd repeats sitting on the edge of the rock, in these places where the country is so charming. I devoted the greatest part of the day to walking-I explored first all the mountains that environed me. I often met the flocks; the shepherds that guarded them were all children, or young persons, the oldest of whom was not above fifteen. I remarked that these occupied the highest mountains, whilst the children, not yet venturing to climb the steep and slippery rocks, remained in the pastures of easier access. So that in descending the mountains you see the shepherds diminished in size and age, and you find on the little hills that border the plains, young shepherds of only eight or nine years old. This observation made me imagine, that the flocks of the valleys had still younger guardians, or at least of the same age as those of the little hills: I questioned one of the children; Do you ever conduct your goats down there? I asked him. I shall go there some day,' said he, smiling, but before that a considerable time will pass, and I must make many a long journey.' How then?'----Why, I must go first quite to the top, and after that I shall work with my father, and when I am sixty I shall go down into the valley,' What, the shepherds of the valley are old men then?—Yes, our eldest brothers are on the mountains, and our grandfathers in the plains.' As he finished these words I left him, and descended into the delicious and fertile valley of Campan.

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As first I perceived only numerous herds of oxen and flocks of sheep, which occupied almost all the space; but soon after I distinguished the

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