led
the Church of the Madeleine, and it constitutes one of the most
beautiful structures of Paris. The spot on which the monarch fell is now
marked by a colossal obelisk of blood-red granite, which the French
government, in 1833, transported from Thebes, in Upper Egypt. Louis was
unquestionably one of the most conscientious and upright sovereigns who
ever sat upon a throne. He loved his people, and earnestly desired to do
every thing in his power to promote their welfare. And it can hardly be
doubted that he was guided through life, and sustained through the awful
trial of his death, by the principle of sincere piety. The tidings of
his execution sent a thrill of horror through Europe, and fastened such
a stigma upon Republicanism as to pave the way for the re-erection of
the throne.

CHAPTER XI.

TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF MARIA ANTOINETTE.

1793

Sufferings of the queen.--Announcement of her husband's death.--Cruel
decree.--Maria's defense of her boy.--The dauphin's cell.--The
queen summoned to the Conciergerie.--Painful partings.--The
Conciergerie.--Loathsome apartments of the queen.--The jailer's
wife.--The jailer's daughter.--The garter.--Dignity of the queen
during her trial.--She is condemned to death.--The queen dressed for
the guillotine.--Her hands bound.--Car of the condemned.--Indignities
heaped upon the queen.--Arrival at the guillotine.--The queen's
composure.--The queen's prayer.--Maternal love.--The last adieu.--End
of the tragedy.

While the king was suffering upon the guillotine, the queen, with Madame
Elizabeth and the children, remained in their prison, in the endurance
of anguish as severe as could be laid upon human hearts. The queen was
plunged into a continued succession of swoons, and when she heard the
booming of the artillery, which announced that the fatal ax had fallen
and that her husband was headless, her companions feared that her life
was also, at the same moment, to be extinguished. Soon the rumbling of
wheels, the rolling of heavy pieces of cannon, and the shouts of the
multitude penetrating through the bars of her cell, proclaimed the
return of the procession from the scene of death. The queen was
extremely anxious to be informed of all the details of the last moments
of the king, but her foes refused her even this consolation.

Days and nights now lingered slowly along while the captives were
perishing in monotonous misery. The severity of their imprisonment was
continua