More terrible
still was the execution of Ravaillac (May 27, 1610) murderer of Henri IV.
"The executioner cut off his hand with an ax, and threw it and the
murderous knife into the fire. His breasts, his arms and his legs were
torn with pincers, and boiling oil and melted lead poured into the open
wounds. He was then dismembered by four strong horses, which pulled for no
less than an entire hour. They dismembered only a corpse. He expired,"
says L'Estoile, "at the second or third pull." When the executioner had to
throw the limbs into the fire that the ashes, according to the sentence,
might be flung to the winds, the whole crowd rushed on to claim them.
"But," adds the same chronicler, "the people rushed on so impetuously that
every mother's son had a piece, even the children, who made fires of them
at the corners of the streets."
After the capture of the Bastille its brave governor, M. de Launay, was
beheaded on the steps of the Hotel de Ville, and his major, M. de Losme-
Salbray, was massacred under the Arcade St. Jean. These were the first
victims of the Revolution.
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