The Last Cavalier: Being the Adventures of Count Sainte-Hermine in the Age of Napoleon. Alexandre Dumas
she thought, she pointed to my brother and said, ‘Monsieur le Président, it was Monsieur le Comte de Sainte-Hermine.’
“Thus, the four accused men, all of them protected by the same indivisible alibi, were all of them brought down together and delivered to the hand of the executioner. ‘By Jove, Capitaine,’ said de Jahiat, stressing the word ‘captain,’ ‘that will teach you what being gallant is all about.’
“One cry of joy arose in the courtroom. Diana de Fargas was triumphant.
“‘Madame’—my brother bowed to the woman who had identified him—‘you have just caused four heads to fall with one single blow.’ Realizing what she had done, the woman fell to her knees and begged for forgiveness. But it was too late!
“I was in the audience that day, and felt about to faint myself. I also felt undying love for my brother.
“On that very day, the four condemned men were sentenced to death.
“Three of them refused to appeal. The fourth, Jahiat, resolutely did not. He told his companions he had a plan; and so they’d not attribute the delay he’d requested to any fear of dying, he explained that he was in the process of seducing the jailer’s daughter and that he hoped, with her, to find a way of escaping during the six or eight weeks the appeal would take. The three others, no longer objecting, joined with Jahiat and signed the papers requesting an appeal.
“Once they had latched on to the idea of escape, the four young souls clung to the possibility of life. It was not that they feared death, but death on the scaffold held no appeal as it lacked honor and conferred no prestige. So they encouraged Jahiat on their behalf to pursue his work of seduction, and in the meantime they tried to enjoy what was left of life as much as they could.
“The appeal did not offer much hope. For the First Consul had declared clearly his intention to crush all those bands of Royalist sympathizers until he had wiped them out completely.
“I myself exhausted all possible steps and every prayer to reach my brother. It was impossible.
“The accused men were ideal, I must say, as objects for everyone’s sympathies. They were young and handsome; they dressed in the latest fashion. They were confident without being haughty: all smiles with the public and polite with their judges, although they did sometimes make fun about what was happening. Not to mention that they belonged to some of the most important families of the province.
“The four accused men, the oldest of them not yet thirty, who had defended themselves against the guillotine but not against the firing squad, who had admitted they might deserve death but who asked to die as soldiers, composed an attractive tableau of youth, courage, and magnanimity.
“As everyone expected, their appeal was denied.
“Jahiat had managed to win the love of Charlotte, the jailer’s daughter, but the lovely girl’s influence over her father was not so great that she could arrange a means for the prisoners to escape. Not that Comptois, the chief jailer, didn’t pity the young men. He was a good man, a Royalist at heart, but, above all, an honest man. He would have given his right arm to prevent the misfortune befalling his four prisoners, but he refused sixty thousand francs to help them escape.
“Three gunshots fired outside the prison conveyed the news to the condemned men that their sentence had been upheld. That night, Charlotte brought each of the prisoners a pair of loaded pistols and a dagger; it was all the poor girl was able to do.
“The three gunshots and the imminent execution of the four condemned but admired young men alarmed the commissioner, and he requested the largest group of armed men that could be mustered. At six in the morning, as the scaffold was being constructed in the Place du Bastion, sixty horsemen stood ready for battle just outside the gate to the prison courtyard. Behind them, more than a thousand people were amassing in the square.
“The execution was set for seven o’clock. At six, the jailers entered the condemned men’s cells. The evening before, they had left their prisoners in shackles and without weapons. Only now they stood free of their shackles, and they were armed to the teeth. Their suspenders were crossed over their bared chests, their wide belts bristled with weapons.
“When it was least expected, the crowd heard what sounded like fighting. Then they saw the four condemned men burst forth from the prison. The crowd cried out as one—in awe, in fear—for surely something terrible was about to happen, these four prisoners looking like gladiators entering the ring.
“I managed to push my way to the front row. I saw them cross the courtyard. They saw that the enormous gate was closed and that on the other side of it, in an unbreakable line, gendarmes were standing motionless with their rifles at their knees.
“The four men stopped, put their heads together; seemed to confer for a moment.
“Then Valensolles, the oldest, strode up to the gate, and with a gracious smile and noble bow, he greeted the horsemen: ‘Very well, gentlemen of the Gendarmerie.’ Then, turning toward his three companions, he said: ‘Adieu, my friends.’ And then he blew his brains out. His body did three pirouettes, and he fell facedown to the ground.
“Next, Jahiat left his companions and walked over to the gate, where he cocked his own two pistols and pointed them toward the gendarmes. He did not shoot, but five or six gendarmes, thinking they were in danger, lowered their rifles and fired. Two bullets pierced Jahiat’s body. ‘Thank you, gentlemen,’ he said. ‘Thanks to you I can die like a soldier.’ And he collapsed onto Valensolles’s body.
“In the meantime, Ribier had seemed to be trying to determine how he in his turn would die. Finally, he appeared to have come to a decision.
“He eyed a column in the courtyard. Ribier walked straight over to it, pulled the dagger from his belt, placed the point against the left side of his chest and set the handle against the column. Then he took the column in his arms, and after he’d saluted the spectators and his friends one last time, with his arms he squeezed the column until the dagger’s blade had completely disappeared into his breast. For a moment he remained standing. Soon, though, his face turned ghastly pale, and his arms loosened their hold on the pillar. His knees buckled. He fell, dead.
“The crowd stood mute, frozen in terror at the same time it was rapt in admiration. Everyone understood that these heroic men were willing to die, but that like ancient Roman gladiators, they wanted to die honorably.
“My brother was the last of them. As he surveyed the crowd he caught sight of me. He put his finger to his mouth, and I realized that he was asking me to stay strong and keep quiet. I nodded, but in spite of myself tears coursed down my cheeks. He motioned that he wished to speak. Everyone grew silent.
“When you witness a spectacle of that kind, you are as eager to hear words as to see action, for words help to explain actions. Still, what more could the crowd ask for? They had been promised four heads, all four falling uniformly and monotonously in the same manner. Instead, they were now being given four different deaths, each one more inventive, dramatic, and unexpected than the one before. The crowd knew that this last hero planned to die in a way at least as original as the other three.
“Charles held neither pistol nor dagger in his hands, though his belt held both. He walked around Valensolles’s body, then stood between the bodies of the other two, Jahiat and Ribier. Like an actor in a theater, he bowed grandly and smiled at the spectators.
“The crowd erupted in applause. Eager as everyone was to see what was coming, not a single person among them, I dare say, would not have given a portion of his own life to save the life of the last Companion of Jehu.
“‘Gentlemen,’ said Charles, and God only knows the anguish I felt as I listened to him, ‘you have come to see us die, and you have already seen three of us fall. Now it is my turn. I ask nothing better than to satisfy your curiosity, but I’ve come to propose a deal.’
“‘Speak! Speak!’ people shouted from all sides. ‘Whatever you ask will be granted.’
“‘All but your life!’ cried a woman’s