Part 55 (1/2)

As in former times, all sentences pa.s.sed on criminals, tried in Paris, whether condemned to die or not, are put into execution on the

PLACE DE GReVE.

The first sentence executed here was that pa.s.sed on _Marguerite Porette_, a female heretic, who was burnt alive in the year 1310.

Among the punishments which it has been found necessary to re-establish is that of marking with a hot iron. Criminals, condemned to imprisonment in irons, are exposed for two hours on a scaffold in the middle of this square. They are seated and tied to a post, having above them a label with the words of their sentence. They are clad in woollen pantaloons and a waistcoat with sleeves, one half of each of which is white; the other, brown. After being exposed two hours, they are stripped, and to their shoulder is applied a hot iron, which there leaves the impression of the letter V, for _voleur_, thief.

Women, not being condemned to imprisonment in irons; are exempt from the penalty of being marked. This punishment is said to produce considerable effect on the culprits, as well as on the spectators.

Previously to its being revived, persons convicted of thieving were insolent beyond all endurance.

The _Place de Greve_ is a parallelogram, one of the long sides of which is occupied by the _ci-devant Hotel de Ville_, a tasteless edifice, begun in 1533, but not finished till 1605.

Before the revolution, the _Place de Greve_ was alternately the theatre of punishments and rejoicings. On the same pavement, where scaffolds were erected for the execution of criminals, rose superb edifices for public festivals.

Here, when any criminal of note was to suffer, the occupiers of the adjoining houses made a rich harvest by letting their apartments.

Every window that commanded a view of the horrid scene, was then hired at a most exorbitant price. Women of the first rank and fas.h.i.+on, decked in all the luxury of dress, graced even the uppermost stories. These weak-nerved females, who would have fainted at the sight of a spider mangling a fly, stood crowded together, calmly viewing the agonies of an expiring malefactor, who, after having been racked on the wheel, was, perhaps, denied the _coup de grace_ which would, in an instant, have rid him of his miserable existence.

The death of a regicide was a sort of gala to these belles; while the lead was melting over the furnace, the iron pinchers heating in the fire, and the horses disposed for tearing asunder the four quarters of the victim of the laws, some of them amused themselves with an innocent game at cards, in sight of all these terrible preparations, from which a man of ordinary feeling would avert his looks with horror.

How happens it that, in all countries on the continent, ladies flock to these odious spectacles? Every where, I believe, the populace run to behold them; but that a female of superior birth and breeding can deliberately seek so inhuman a gratification is a mystery which I cannot explain, unless, indeed, on the principle of shewing themselves, as well as that of seeing the show.

”_Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipsae_.”

LETTER LXI.

_Paris, February 2, 1802._

Independently of the general organization of Public Instruction, according to the new plan, of which I have before traced you the leading features, there exist several schools appropriate to different professions, solely devoted to the Public Service, and which require particular knowledge in the arts and sciences. Hence they bear the generic name of

SCHOOLS FOR PUBLIC SERVICES.

They are comprised under the following denominations.

POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL.

SCHOOL OF ARTILLERY.

MILITARY ENGINEERS.

BRIDGES AND HIGHWAYS.

MINES.

NAVAL ENGINEERS.

NAVIGATION.

In order to be admitted into any of the above schools, the candidates must prove themselves qualified by the preliminary instruction required the examinations at the compet.i.tion prescribed for each of them. The pupils of these schools receive a salary from the nation.

At the head of them is the _Polytechnic School_, of which I have already spoken. This is the grand nursery, whence the pupils, when they have attained a sufficient degree of perfection, are transplanted into the other _Schools for Public Services_. Next come the

SCHOOLS OF ARTILLERY.