710. The Terror: Death at the Guillotine (Part 4)
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The execution was already under way when, having crossed the Tuileries, I reached the gate opening onto the Place Louis Caimes. From there I saw the condemned men appear one after another on the fatal stage, only to vanish at once as the plank on which their eternal rest was to begin tipped them from view. Danton appeared last on that stage, drenched in the blood of all his friends. Day was fading. At the foot of the dreadful structure, standing out like a colossal silhouette against the sky, I saw this tribune rise up like a shade out of Dante, half lit by the dying sun,
seeming as much to be emerging from the tomb as about to enter it, nothing could match the boldness of this revolutionary athlete's bearing. Nothing could match the formidable set of that profile defying the axe, or the expression of that head, which, about to fall, still seemed to be dictating the laws. a dreadful spectacle. Time could never erase it from my memory. Now I felt the whole force of the emotion behind Danton's last words, terrible words, which people repeated afterwards, shuddering with horror and admiration.
Above all, don't forget, he told the executioner, don't forget to show my head to the people. It's worth seeing. So that's one of the most famous scenes, not just in the history of the French Revolution, but in the entire history of France. It is the eyewitness account by Antoine Vassant Arnaud of the execution of Georges Danton on the 5th of April 1794, and it's a scene that's been immortalized in novels, in plays, in operas and films, and unsurprisingly so, because it is the spectacle of the French Revolution devouring one of its most memorable and, I think, probably attractive figures.
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