tion of
realism?--stands with his hand upon the heart of a child about nine or
ten years old, perfectly nude--why that excess of ideality? Extended
at Bichat's feet lies a dead body. It is Bichat's book "Of Life and
of Death" translated into bronze. I was studying this statue, which
epitomizes the defects and merits of David d'Angers, when I felt some
one touch my shoulder. I turned around; it was M. Milliet. He held a
paper in his hand.

"Well?" I asked.

"Well, victory!"

"What is that you have there?"

"The minutes of the trial and execution."

"Of whom?"

"Of your men."

"Of Guyon, Lepretre, Amiet--!"

"And Hyvert."

"Give it to me."

"Here it is."

I took it and read:

REPORT OF THE DEATH AND EXECUTION OF LAURENT GUYON, ETIENNE
HYVERT, FRANCOIS AMIET, ANTOINE LEPRETRE. Condemned the twentieth
Thermidor of the year VIII., and executed the twenty-third
Vendemiaire of the year IX.

To-day, the twenty-third Vendemiaire of the year IX., the
government commissioner of the tribunal, who received at eleven
of the evening the budget of the Minister of Justice, containing
the minutes of the trial and the judgment which condemns to
death Laurent Guyon, Etienne Hyvert, Francois Amiet and Antoine
Lepretre;--the decision of the Court of Appeals of the sixth
inst., rejecting the appeal against the sentence of the
twenty-first Thermidor of the year VIII., I did notify by letter,
between seven and eight of the morning, the four accused that
their sentence of death would take effect to-day at eleven o'clock.
In the interval which elapsed before eleven o'clock, the four
accused shot themselves with pistols and stabbed themselves with
blows from a poinard in prison. Lepretre and Guyon, according
to public rumor, were dead; Hyvert fatally wounded and dying;
Amiet fatally wounded, but still conscious. All four, in this
state, were conveyed to the scaffold, and, living or dead, were
guillotined. At half after eleven, the sheriff, Colin, handed in
the report of their execution to the Municipality for registration
upon the death roll:

The captain of gendarmerie remitted to the Justice of the Peace
a report of what had occurred in the prison, of which he was a
witness. I, who was not present, do certify to what I have learned
by hearsay only.

(Signed) DUBOST, _Clerk_.

Bourg, 23d Vendemiaire of the year IX.

Ah! so it was the poet who was right and not