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The execution of Louis xvi.
The following is the report of the Commune of Paris of this horrid murder:
The proclamation of the Provisional Executive Council relative to his execution, had hardly been notified to Louis, before he requested permission to confer with his family. The commissioners testifying their embarrassment at this request, proposed to him, that his family should be brought into his apartment; to which he agreed. His wife, his children, and his sister accordingly came to him; and they conferred together in the room, in which he was accustomed to dine. This interview lasted two hours and an half; their conversation was very earnest. After his family had retired, Louis told the commissioners that he had been obliged to use strong language to his wife.
His family had asked, whether they might not see him again in the morning. To this he made no answer, and Madame Elizabeth saw him no more. Louis cried out in his chamber, "Oh, the murderers! the murderers!" Addressing herself to the son, Marie Antoinette said, "Learn by the misfortunes of your father not to avenge his death."
The morning of his execution Louis asked for scissars to cut his hair; they were refused him.
When they took away his knife he exclaimed, "Do they think me base enough to destroy myself?"
The Commandant General and the Commissioners of the Commune ascended, at half past eight o'clock in the morning, to the apartment of Louis, and signified to him the order which they had received to conduct him to the place of execution.—Louis required three minutes to speak to his confessor, which were readily granted.—Immediately after, Louis presented a packet to one of the commissioners, with an entreaty to convey it to the Council General of the Commune.
