the road to the scaffold

about two o'clock the noise of a carriage was heard. it was coster de saint-victor returning with the handbills. as he had been certain of the successful issue of the affair, he had ordered the printer to post a hundred in the town of vitré.

the handbill read as follows:

you are invited to assist at the execution of fran?ois goulin, commissioner-extraordinary of the directory. he will be executed to-morrow at nine o'clock in the morning, on the road from vitré to la guerche, at a place called moutiers, upon his own guillotine.

general cadoudal, by whose order this execution takes place, offers the truce of god to all who shall be present at this act of justice.

georges cadoudal.

from his camp at la guerche.

in passing through etrelles, saint-germain du pinel and moutiers, coster had left copies with the inhabitants, whom he had awakened for the purpose, and whom he charged to inform their neighbors of the good fortune that was in store for them on the following day. nor had any of these people complained of being awakened. a commissioner of the republic is not executed every day.

horses were harnessed to the trees that had been felled in that direction, as the republicans had done at the other end of the ravine, in order to make the road passable.

at two o'clock, as had been agreed, cadoudal gave the signal to his men, who took up their places behind the thickets where they had fought during the day.

half an hour earlier branche-d'or, chante-en-hiver and[pg 514] his twenty men had started off on the road to chateau-giron, dressed as hussars. an hour passed in absolute silence. the chouans could hear the sentinels calling from one to another from where they were posted.

about a quarter to three the disguised chouans appeared at the end of the main street in la guerche, and, after a moment's parley with the sentinel, were directed to the town-hall where colonel hulot was lodged. but branche-d'or and chante-en-hiver were not so simple as to follow the main thoroughfares of the town; they took to the lanes, where they might have been thought a patrol watching over the safety of the town.

they went thus to the house where fran?ois goulin lodged. there everything passed off as cadoudal had foreseen. the sentinel at the guillotine, seeing the little troop approach from the centre of the town, was not at all alarmed, and they had a pistol at his throat before he suspected that they had aught to say to him. the republicans, taken by surprise in the house where they were asleep, made no resistance. fran?ois goulin was caught in his bed, and had been rolled up and tied in his sheet before he had time to utter a single cry of alarm.

as for the executioner, he and his assistant were lodged in a little pavilion in the garden, and as cadoudal had foretold, the republicans themselves, when apprised of the object of the expedition, pointed out the hole where the two foul creatures were sleeping. the blues promised furthermore to take and distribute the bills, and to ask colonel hulot's permission to be present at the execution.

a rocket went up from the hill at three o'clock in the morning, announcing to cadoudal and his men that the expedition had been successfully terminated. and at the same time they caught the echo of the rumbling of a heavy cart which was conveying one of the finest specimens of monsieur guillotin's invention.

seeing that his men were not pursued, cadoudal called the chouans, and they removed the dead bodies from the[pg 515] middle of the road, that the wagon might not be impeded in its progress. it was not until they were half-way down the hill that they heard the first blast of the trumpets and the first beats of the drums.

the fact is that no one had been in any haste to inform colonel hulot. the one who was charged with the duty did not forget to take with him a number of the handbills; and instead of first reporting the audacious deed which cadoudal's men had just perpetrated, he began by thrusting a handful of the bills under his eyes. then, as they told the colonel nothing, he was forced to elicit the necessary information by a series of questions which brought forth the truth bit by bit. he finally heard it all, however, and flew into a terrible passion, ordering a hot pursuit of the whites and the rescue of the government commissioner at any cost.

then the trumpets had sounded and the drums beat. but the officers wheedled their old colonel until they disarmed his anger, and obtained a tacit permission to go, at their own risk and peril, to see this execution which the colonel himself was dying to witness. but he knew that this was impossible, and that he would only jeopardize his own head by such an act; he therefore contented himself with telling his secretary, who had not dared to ask leave, to go with the other officers and bring him an exact report. the young man jumped for joy when he learned that he was to go and see fran?ois goulin's head cut off.

the man must indeed have inspired profound disgust when whites and blues, citizens and soldiers, approved thus unanimously of an act which was open to such criticism from the standpoint of the right.

as for fran?ois goulin, he had no very clear idea of what was impending over him until he saw the chouans join and fraternize with his escort. taken by men wearing the republican uniform, rolled up and tied in his sheet before they had answered his questions, thrown into a carriage with the executioner, his dear friend, and following in the[pg 516] wake of his beloved machine, it will be readily understood how impossible it was that the truth should have dawned upon him.

but when he saw the pretended hussars exchanging jokes with the chouans, who walked along the embankment at their side; when, after persistently asking what they intended to do with him, and why they had entered his domicile and laid violent hands upon his person, he was presented, by way of reply, with a placard announcing his own execution; then, indeed, did he realize the full gravity of his predicament, unless he were rescued by the republicans, or his captors should be moved to pity, two chances so extremely problematical that he could place no dependence upon them.

his first idea was to address the executioner and impress upon him that he was to obey no one save himself, since he had been sent from paris with the injunction to obey him in all things. but the man was himself so cast down, and looked around with such a haggard eye, being firmly convinced that he was to die in the same place and at the same hour with the man whose custom it was to put others to death, that the unhappy fran?ois goulin soon saw that he had nothing to expect from that quarter.

then he thought of crying out, appealing, entreating for help; but all the faces expressed such utter indifference that he shook his head and said to himself: "no, no, it is useless."

thus they reached the foot of the hill. there the chouans made a halt. they wished to take off their borrowed costumes and put on their own uniform, which consisted of the vest, breeches and gaiters of the breton peasant. a number of curious people had already gathered there. the bills had accomplished wonders; from six and even eight miles in the country round, people were hastening to the spot. everybody knew that this was the same fran?ois goulin who had no other name throughout the vendée and at nantes than the drowner.

[pg 517]

the guillotine shared with him in their curiosity. the instrument was wholly unknown in this corner of france, which bordered upon finistère (finis terr?, the end of the earth). men and women questioned each other as to how it worked, where the condemned man was placed, and how the knife went up and down. people who did not know that goulin was the hero of the occasion addressed him, asking for information. one of them said to him: "do you believe a person dies as soon as his head is cut off? when i cut off the head of a goose or a duck it lives for more than a quarter of an hour afterward."

and goulin, who was no more sure than he that death was instantaneous, writhed in his bonds and said to the executioner: "did you not tell me one day that the heads of the people who had been guillotined gnawed at the bottom of your basket?"

but the executioner, stupefied with terror, either did not reply at all, or only mumbled such incoherent words as revealed the mortal fear which was upon him whose lips were thus clogged.

after a halt of a quarter of an hour, which gave the chouans time to resume their own uniforms, they started again; but they caught sight of the entire population hastening from the left to witness the execution.

it was a curious thing to see these men, who, on the previous day, had been threatened with the fatal instrument, and who had looked with dread upon the man who had it in charge—it was a curious thing to see this instrument, like diomedes' horses, which fed upon human flesh, cast itself upon its master and devour him in turn.

a black mass, preceded by a stick with a white handkerchief floating at the end, hurried through the crowd. they were the republicans who had taken advantage of the truce of god which cadoudal had offered them, and were coming, preceded by the white emblem of truce, to join the silence of scorn to the angry outbursts of the populace, who, having nothing at stake, respected nothing.

[pg 518]

cadoudal ordered a halt, and, after courteously saluting the blues, with whom he and his men had exchanged death blows on the previous night, he said: "come, gentlemen. the spectacle is a grand one and well worth the presence of men of all parties. cut-throats, drowners, and assassins have no flag; or if they have one it is the standard of death—the black flag. come, we will none of us march beneath that flag."

and he went on again, mingling with the republicans, and trusting them as they trusted him.