She was bound to the plank. Slowly it descended till the neck of the queen was brought under the groove down which the fatal ax was to glide. The executioner, hardened by deeds of daily butchery, could not look upon this spectacle of the misery of the Queen of France unmoved. His hand trembled as he endeavored to disengage the ax, and there was a moment's delay. The ax fell. The dissevered head dropped into the basket placed to receive it. The executioner seized it by the hair, gushing with blood, raised it high above his head, and walked around the elevated platform of the guillotine, exhibiting the bloody trophy to the assembled multitude. One long shout of "Vive la Republique!" rent the air, and the long and dreadful tragedy of the life of Maria Antoinette was closed.
The remains of the queen were thrown into a pine coffin and hurried to an obscure burial. Upon the records of the Church of La Madeleine we now read the charge, "_For the coffin of the Widow Capet, seven francs._"
THE PRINCESS ELIZABETH, THE DAUPHIN, AND THE PRINCESS ROYAL.
The dauphin and the princesses.--Painful uncertainty.--Sufferings of the princesses.--Their dismal cell.--Painful thoughts.--Unwelcome visitors.--The princesses separated.--Brutality of the soldiers.--Elizabeth taken before the tribunal.--A group of noble captives.--Trial of Madame Elizabeth.--Her condemnation.--Sad reverses.--Character of Madame Elizabeth.--Madame Elizabeth at the guillotine.--Execution of her companions.--Death of Madame Elizabeth.--Her faith and piety.--Situation of the dauphin.--The brute Simon.--Inhuman treatment of the dauphin.--He becomes insane.--The reaction.--Change in the dauphin's treatment.--Death of the dauphin.--Sympathy awakened by it.--Situation of the princess royal.--Her deep sufferings.--Sympathy for the princess royal.--She is released.--Arrival of the princess royal in Vienna.--Her settled melancholy.--Love felt for Maria.--She recovers her cheerfulness.--Maria's marriage.--Her present residence.--Advanced age of Maria.--Still retains traces of her early sorrows.