Vidocq and the Sansons. left till he reached the foot of the steps lead ing to the scaffold, — no longer the velvetcarpeted stairs, but rough deal planks fresh from the saw. He passed up to the scaffold, where the hard, grim man stood to welcome him and arrange him for death. The moment he appeared a strange thrill went through thousands of hearts. The black, dim mob turned white; every hat went off in the twinkling of an eye. In less than two minutes the body of Fauntleroy the banker swayed in the murky November air. Fauntleroy's doom was so thoroughly rec ognized as well merited that although in 1832 every other kind of forger was cx- 1
35
empted by law from the gallows, the hands of the hangman still hovered over the forger of wills and of powers of attorney to transfer stock. Meanwhile, only two other execu tions for forgery took place. Joseph Hunton, a Quaker linen-draper, having forged and uttered several bills of exchange, was arrested in the cabin of the ship in which he had tried to escape to America; and al though the jury recommended him strongly to mercy, he was hanged in December, 1828. The last execution for forgery was that of Thomas Maynard in the following year, for forging a custom-house warrant. In 1837 the capital punishment for that crime was abolished.
VIDOCQ AND THE SANSONS. TT the Criminal Annals of France no two
- names are better known than those of
Vidocq and Sanson, — the one a noted crimi nal himself, and afterward the most famous of all French detectives; the other, the pub lic executioner during the stormy days of the French Revolution and for many years afterward. A writer in the " Cornhill Magazine," some years since, gave an interesting ac count of his meeting with these celebrated characters; and his description of the inter view is as follows : — "Among my Parisian acquaintances was M. Appert. He was the almoner to the Queen of the French. In the discharge of his duties he was brought into contact with all the vagabondism and profligacy of Paris; he was familiar with the haunts of rascaldom when out of the hands of Jus tice, and with the most distinguished of the repre sentatives of rascaldom when Justice had seized them for its prey. In his company I visited and as sociated with some of the fiercest ruffians and most daring burglars of the French capital. Through him I was brought into personal contact with San
son the Executioner and Vidocq the Spy. I will record a few reminiscences connected with his name and history. I dined with him on one oc casion when among the invited guests were Vidocq and the two Sansons, — father and son, the heads man's office being an inheritance. Several gentle men known in the literary world were present. In no other place than Paris could there have been such a service tie table. And the meeting was more remarkable, as it was the first time that Sanson had ever seen the man who had furnished him with so much food for the guillotine; and it gave Vidocq the opportunity for making many inquiries as to the deportment of illustrious victims in the moment supreme of violent death. "Sanson the father was a man of huge size, — of stature more than six feet, — of a placid and serious expression of countenance. He might have passed for a country gentleman ' at ease in his possessions.' He answered every question with the greatest serenity and gravity. He called the instrument of death ' la m^canique,' and in my intercourse with him I never heard the word ' guillotine ' or ' knife ' fall from his lips. He was disposed to be taciturn; but less so than his son, who appeared to look upon his father with a con siderable amount of reverence, and took no part
