Tuesday, 27. In the morning the enemy's fire continued, as did our mortars; for the major part of our cannon were rendered useless. Major Godfrey, with 5 others were wounded by one thell which fell in the main ditch. A dark night approaching, the enemy began to play from all their batteries, with their cannon, mortars, thells, and fmall arms, with greater fury than they had hitherto done, we continued our fire upon them, with all our cannon and mortars of every denomination, which continued on both fides, till the enemy's were fuddenly filent and rushing like a torrent from the town, they made their way upon the Anftruther, to the amount of about 3,000; our centinels efpying them as they paffed the Quay guard houfe, began to fire, and our guards catching the alarm, formed themselves for their reception, gave them a difcharge, and fell back to load again; then mounting the barcket, gave them two more. They on their part kept a terrible fire upon us, and we continued ours upon them, until they came close to the palifadoes; we being only twenty in number, with one officer for the guard of that place, were compelled to retire in the beft manner we could to our captain of the guard, who had nobly maintained his poft, and ordering us into the left of his guard, gave the enemy another volley or two; but being at length forced to retreat before fuch unequal numbers, they became malters of the covered way of the Anftruther, and alfo the Argyle. By this time the whole garrifon were alarmed, who haftened to their alarm pofts, whence they continued a terrible fire upon them, especially the fufiliers, who killed great numbers, and prevented their advancing; the enemy were by this time got into the ditch of the Queen's Redoubt, and became mafters of that fort. The Queen's Redoubt being taken with the lofs of Lieutenant Whitehead, and feveral thers, the reft retired into the fub teraneous paffages, to guard them. Kane's Lunette guard did wonders, and maintained their poft against the most powerful efforts of the enemy. By this time we fprung five mines, three of which were to little effect; but the other two destroyed numbers, particularly the mine, near the Argyle fort. The enemy having attacked the weft part of the garrifon in a manner equal to the north, they were more expofed to our fire, becaufe of the remoteness of the garrifon from town: here they attacked the weft Lunette, which was also defended with great bravery. The enemy however, in the midst of fire and fmoke, regardlets of the lofs of men, made themfelves mafters of a four gun battery, but were obliged to abandon it again, with infinite lofs; a conftant fire being made from the princefs Carolina's Lunette, fuftained by fome of our piquets. The furvivors fled with great precipitation over the palifadoes, and flew back to the town. Lieut. Col. Jefferys was made prifoner in this attack; and Major Cunningham was wounded. On the fouth fide of the garrison (next the fea) the enemy came in boats, and attacked the garrifon with fcaling ladders, but were foon repulfed; the boat with fcaling ladders was taken, and others funk. This poft was maintained by very few men, but fuch was the zeal of the foldiers that fome of the fick and wouned came out of the hospital to join in defence of this quarter. At this time the Marlborough fort was attacked by 700 men, led on by a prince of the blood, the volunteer already mentioned, who were repulfed with great lofs, by a captain and 50 men. When day appeared, the enemy, fatigued with the night's encounter, beat a parley, when our men forebore their firing with fuch reluctance, that our officers were obliged to stop them with menaces fword in hand. We had about forty killed and wounded, and the enemy 1500. Thus did four regiments and one company of artil lery lery maintain the garrison, againft fuch numbers of the enemy by fea and land for such a length of time, as can perhaps fcarce be paralleled in history. The terms on which the fort was at laft furrendered by a handful of men fo diftreffed, harraffed, Shattered, and neglected, remain a lafling monument to their honour, and the difgrace of those by whom they ought to have been fupported. (See Vol. XII. p. 29.) A lift of the kill'd, awounded, and fuch as died of their wounds, with thofe rubo died of diforders, and, fuch miffing, &c. REGIMENTS, &c. as werè 9 3 Miffing Wounded Wounds Died of their Killed Numb. Barrels 1b. oz. 3157 49 13 152 155 3 Reduced into pounds 43 Total 16.74 6 10 3 make 9353639 pounds and Total 332 13 ounces. 7113011 25 110 117. A particular Account of the Murder of IV. it will be neceflary not only to count of the murder of Henry relate the fact, but to fhew the motives from which it was committed, and thefe can only be deduced from the character and fituation of the murtherer, with which it is therefore proper to begin this relation. Francis Ravaillac, the fon of a practitioner in the law, was born at Angoulefme, diftant from Paris aWhen he was bout 100 leagues. very young he lived with one Rofieres, an advocate at Angoulefme whom he ferved as clerk and valet de chambre. He lived afterwards with feveral attorneys, the laft of whom dying while he was in his fervice, he took a little lodging and follicited law fuits for him felf. felf. This practice he continued feveral years, but with folittle advantage, that at length he quitted it, and subsisted by inftructing youth. At this time his father and mother were parted, and were fo indigent, that both fubfifted chiefly on alms. Ravaillac, who was then about 30 years old, and unmarried, lived with his mother, and becoming infolvent, was thrown into prifon for debt. He feems to have been naturally of a gloomy difpofition, and enthufiaftic turn of mind, which his misfortunes heightened to a degree of phrenfy. While he was in prifon, he frequently fancied himself furrounded with fire, fulphur, and incenfe, and the fame kind of delufions continued after he was released. He faid, that on the Saturday night after Christmas 1609, having made his meditations as was his cuftom in bed, with his hands clafped and his feet croffed, he felt his mouth and face covered by fome invifible agent, and was at the fame time urged by an irrefiftible impulfe to fing the pfalms of David; he therefore fung the pfalms Dixit Dominus, Mifere, and de Profundis, quite through, and declared, that he feemed to himfelf to have a trumpet in his mouth, which made his voice fhrill and loud as the found of that inftrument in war. The next morning as foon as he got out of bed, having made his meditatition on his knees, and committed him felf to God as his manner was, he fat down on a low chair before the hearth, and having combed his head, it not being yet light, he perceived one of the fticks ftill on fire; when he had dreffed himfelf, he found part of a bundle of brush wood, and putting it on the stick that was ftill 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 faw on each fide of his face, a great number of confecrated wafers or hofts, and below his face a roll of the fame fize with that which the prieft elevates at the celebration of mafs. Soon after he became a lay brother of the Fuillants, but his ha bit was afterwards taken from him upon account of thefe vifions, which gave him inexpreflible concern. While his mind was in thiş flate, he often reflected on the king's breach of promife, in not compelling the hugonots to return to the catholic church, and determined to go to Paris to admonish him not to neglec this duty any longer. He accordingly let out from Angoulefme, and in 14 days arrived at Paris. When he came thither, he went feveral times to the louvre, and applied to many perfons to introduce him to his majefty, but without effect. Among others, he applied to father Daubigny, a jefuit, after having heard him celebrate mass at a houfe of that order near St. Anthony's gate; to Daubigny he not only related his purpose to speak with the king, but his vifions, and his defire to be restored to his order, or to be admitted among the jefuits. Daubigny, having heard all that he had to fay, advited him to put all those things out of his head, to pray to God, and tell his beads. Ravaillac pondered this anfwer ia his mind, but could not relinquish his purpose of speaking to the king, which, however, finding it impoffible to execute, he went to Daubigny a fecond time, and thewed him a little knife on which there was a heart and a cross, telling him at the same time, that the king fhould be difpofed to make war against the hugonots. Daubigny regarding him as a lunatic, difmiffed him with fome flight anfwer, and he still loitered about the palace in hopes of feeing the king. It happened that fome days afterwards he met his majesty in his coach, near St. Innocent's Church, and his defire to speak to him growing more ardent as the profpect of fuccefs, he ran to the coach fide and cried out, Sire, I speak to you in the name of our Lord Lord Jefus and of the Holy Virgin, but the king put him back with a little ftick, and would not hear him. After this repulfe he conceived a defign to kill the king, utterly defpairing of producing any effect on his majefty 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 fome time returned back to Angoulefme. Here he continued in a ftate of great follicitude and anxiety, fometimes confidering his project to kill the king as meritorious, and fometimes as unlawful; at length, however, he went to hear mafs at the monaftery of the Francifcan Fryars in Angoulefime, and going afterwards to confeffion, he confeffed among other things, an intention to murder, but did not fay his intention was to murder the king; nor did the confeffor afk a more particular account of the fault. His mind being ftill restless and perturbed, he went again to Paris, and when he entered the city, his refolution to kill the king returned ftrong upon him; he therefore took a lodging in the fuburbs 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 happened that in this inn there was no room for him, but while he was talking to the man that kept it, he caft his eyes upon a knife, Tharp pointed and double edged, with a whalebone handle, that lay on the table, and a thought inftantly ftruck him, that this knife was very fit for the execution of his defign; he therefore took an opportuuity to convey it away under his doublet, and having caufed a new handle of bucks-horn to be put to it, he kept it in a bag in his pocket near three weeks. But after this, he faltered in his refolution, and at length renouncing it a fecond time, he let out on his jour ney 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 Eftamps, he heard fome foldiers talking in an inn at which he put up for refreshment, about an intention of the king to make war upon the pope, and transfer the feat of the holy fee to Paris. Upon this, his refolution inftantly and irrefiftably returned: he went out of the houfe immediately, and having tharpened the point of the knife that he had broken, by rubbing it on a ftone, he took the way back to Paris. After he came to Paris a third time, he affociated only with fryars of his own country, but to them he did not reveal his purpofe, knowing that whenever the public is concerned in any confeffion, the priest is obliged to reveal it. He feems, however, ftill to have been in fome degree irrefolute, for in his confeffion to a Francifcan friar he asked whether if a man was affaulted with a temptation to kill a king, and fhould confefs it to the penitentiary, the penitentiary would be under a neceffity of revealing it; but to this question he received no answer, being interrupted, juft as he had put it by another friar of the order. Tho' he did not again relinquish his purpose, yet he ftill doubted whether it was not finful, so that he would not receive the holy communion after he had determined to commit the fact, left this refolution having rendered him unworthy the body of his lord, he fhould receive it to his damnation. Having no hope of getting admif. fion to the king in the palace, he watched with unwearied affiduity at the gate for his coming out; and having at laft, on the feventeenth of May 1610, feen him into his coach, he followed it to the place where he had before attempted to speak to him and been repulfed; here the coach was stopped by two carts, and Ravaillac feeing the king lean on one fide to fpeak to M. Epernon, who was with him him in the coach, was fo tranfported with enthufiaftic phrenzy, that he thought he heard a voice fay to him in an emphatic tone," now is the time, make hafte, or it will be upon which he ran up to the coach, and putting one foot on the fpoke of the wheel, raised himself up, and drawing his knife at the fame time, ftruck the king in the fide, but finding that the knife ftopped against one of the ribs, and did not penetrate the king's body, he repeated his ftroke, and gave him a mortal wound near the fame place. The king crying out that he was flain, the attention of thofe about him was immediately turned on Ravaillac, who was inftantly feized by one Paul Nofter, an exempt of the guards, and permitted to fall into that delufion as a punishment for his fins. He expreffed the utmost contrition for his tault, and implored God to give him grace fufficient to continue till death in good faith, lively hope, and perfect charity. Being ftill urged to confefs his accomplices, he replied with fome indignation, that he was incapable of undertaking for money an act which he believed to be wicked, much lefs an act so henious as the murder of his prince. He answered all other queftions with great calmness and humility, and when he figned his confeffion he wrote under his name thefe lines, Que toujours en mon cœur Jefus fait le vainqueur. protected from the rage of others who In my heart let Jefus be always would have cut him to pieces upon the fpot. When he was fearched, there was found upon him a paper, on which was painted the arms of France with a lion on each fide, one holding a key, the other a fword, over which he had written in a diftich, this fentence, "Do not fuffer the name of God to "be prophaned in thy prefence." There was alfo found a rofary, and a piece of coftmary root in the fhape of a heart,, which he had obtained as a charm to cure him of a fever, from the capuchins, who affured him, that there was, in the infide of it, a piece of the real crofs of Jefus Chrift, which however upon breaking it, proved to be falfe. After fome days he was examined by the prefident and feveral commiffioners of the parliament, concerning his motives and his accomplices; of his motives he gave the fame account that has been given above, and fleadi ly and uniformly denied that he had any accomplice or abettor During his examination he often wept, and faid, that though he be lieved at the time when he killed the king, that it was a meritorious act, vet he was now convinced that he was conqueror. In a fubfequent examination he was confronted with Daubigny, who denied that Ravaillac had ever spoken to him on any account. Ravaillac, however, infifted on the truth of what he had alledged, tho' at the fame time he thought Daubigny a good man, and that on this occation his fear prevented him from declaring the truth." But notwithstanding the conftancy and uniformity with which he denied having any adviser, abettor, or affo ciate, he was ordered to be put to the torture of the brodequin. The brodequin is a strong wooden box made in the form of a boot, juft big enough to contain both the legs of the criminal, which are put into its and a wooden wedge is then driven in with a mallet between the knees, and after that is forced quite through, a fecond of a larger fize is applied, and sometimes a third in the fame man |