Unfortunately for the Count, there was another interest at work, more powerful even than the high aristocracy. The all-potent Abbé Dubois, the grand favorite and bosom counsellor of the Regent, was deeply interested in the scheme of Law, and the prosperity of his bank, and of course in the security of the stock-brokers. Indeed, the Regent himself is said to have dipped deep in the Mississippi scheme. Dubois and Law, therefore, exerted their influence to the utmost to have the tragic affair pushed to the extremity of the law, and the murder of the broker punished in the most signal and appalling manner. Certain it is, the trial was neither long nor intricate. The Count and his fellow prisoner were equally inculpated in the crime; and both were condemned to a death the most horrible and ignominious — to be broken alive on the wheel!
As soon as the sentence of the court was made public, all the nobility, in any degree related to the house of Van Horn, went into mourning. Another grand aristocratical assemblage was held, and a petition to the Regent, on behalf of the Count, was drawn out and left with the Marquis de Créqui for signature. This petition set forth the previous insanity of the Count, and showed that it was a hereditary malady of his family. It stated various circumstances in mitigation of his offence, and implored that his sentence might be commuted to perpetual imprisonment.
Upward of fifty names of the highest nobility, beginning with the Prince de Ligne, and including cardinals, archbishops, dukes, marquises, etc., together with ladies of equal rank, were signed to this petition. By one of the caprices of human pride and vanity, it became an object of ambition to get enrolled among the illustrious suppliants; a kind of testimonial of noble blood, to prove relationship to a murderer! The Marquis de Créqui was absolutely besieged by applicants to sign, and had to refer their claims to this singular honor, to the Prince de Ligne, the grandfather of the Count. Many who were excluded, were highly incensed, and numerous feuds took place. Nay, the affronts thus given to the morbid pride of some aristocratical families, passed from generation to generation; for, fifty years afterward, the Duchess of Mazarin complained of a slight which her father had received from the Marquis de Créqui; which proved to be something connected with the signature of this petition. This important document being completed, the illustrious body of petitioners, male and female, on Saturday evening, the eve of Palm Sunday, repaired to the Palais Royal, the residence of the Regent, and were ushered, with great ceremony but profound silence, into his hall of council. They had appointed four of their number as deputies, to present the petition, viz.: the Cardinal de Rohan, the Duke de Havré, the Prince de Ligne, and the Marquis de Créqui. After a little while, the deputies were summoned to the cabinet of the Regent. They entered, leaving the assembled petitioners in a state of the greatest anxiety. As time slowly wore away, and the evening advanced, the gloom of the company increased. Several of the ladies prayed devoutly; the good Princess of Armagnac told her beads.
The petition was received by the Regent with a most unpropitious aspect. “In asking the pardon of the criminal,” said he, “you display more zeal for the house of Van Horn, than for the service of the king.” The noble deputies enforced the petition by every argument in their power. They supplicated the Regent to consider that the infamous punishment in question would reach not merely the person of the condemned, not merely the house of Van Horn, but also the genealogies of princely and illustrious families, in whose armorial bearings might be found quarterings of this dishonored name.
“Gentlemen,” replied the Regent, “it appears to me the disgrace consists in the crime, rather than in the punishment.”
The Prince de Ligne spoke with warmth: “I have in my genealogical standard,” said he, “four escutcheons of Van Horn, and of course have four ancestors of that house. I must have them erased and effaced, and there would be so many blank spaces, like holes, in my heraldic ensigns. There is not a sovereign family which would not suffer, through the rigor of your Royal Highness; nay, all the world knows, that in the thirty-two quarterings of Madame, your mother, there is an escutcheon of Van Horn.”
“Very well,” replied the Regent, “I will share the disgrace with you, gentlemen.”
Seeing that a pardon could not be obtained, the Cardinal de Rohan and the Marquis de Créqui left the cabinet; but the Prince de Ligne and the Duke de Havré remained behind. The honor of their houses, more than the life of the unhappy Count, was the great object of their solicitude. They now endeavored to obtain a minor grace. They represented that in the Netherlands, and in Germany, there was an important difference in the public mind as to the mode of inflicting the punishment of death upon persons of quality. That decapitation had no influence on the fortunes of the family of the executed, but that the punishment of the wheel was such an infamy, that the uncles, aunts, brothers, and sisters of the criminal, and his whole family, for three succeeding generations, were excluded from all noble chapters, princely abbeys, sovereign bishoprics, and even Teutonic commanderies of the Order of Malta. They showed how this would operate immediately upon the fortunes of a sister of the Count, who was on the point of being received as a canoness into one of the noble chapters.
While this scene was going on in the cabinet of the Regent, the illustrious assemblage of petitioners remained in the hall of council, in the most gloomy state of suspense. The re-entrance from the cabinet of the Cardinal de Rohan and the Marquis de Créqui, with pale, downcast countenances, had struck a chill into every heart. Still they lingered until near midnight, to learn the result of the after application. At length the cabinet conference was at an end. The Regent came forth, and saluted the high personages of the assemblage in a courtly manner. One old lady of quality, Madame de Guyon, whom he had known in his infancy, he kissed on the cheek, calling her his “good aunt.” He made a most ceremonious salutation to the stately Marchioness de Créqui, telling her he was charmed to see her at the Palais Royal; “a compliment very ill-timed,” said the Marchioness, “considering the circumstance which brought me there.” He then conducted the ladies to the door of the second saloon, and there dismissed them, with the most ceremonious politeness.
The application of the Prince de Ligne and the Duke de Havré, for a change of the mode of punishment, had, after much difficulty, been successful. The Regent had promised solemnly to send a letter of commutation to the attorney-general on Holy Monday, the 25th of March, at five o’clock in the morning. According to the same promise, a scaffold would be arranged in the cloister of the Conciergerie, or prison, where the Count would be beheaded on the same morning, immediately after having received absolution. This mitigation of the form of punishment gave but little consolation to the great body of petitioners, who had been anxious for the pardon of the youth: it was looked upon as all-important, however, by the Prince de Ligne, who, as has been before observed, — was exquisitely alive to the dignity of his family.
The Bishop of Bayeux and the Marquis de Créqui visited the unfortunate youth in prison. He had just received the communion in the chapel of the Conciergerie, and was kneeling before the altar, listening to a mass for the dead, which was performed at his request. He protested his innocence of any intention to murder the Jew, but did not deign to allude to the accusation of robbery. He made the bishop and the Marquis promise to see his brother the prince, and inform him of this his dying asseveration.
Two other of his relations, the Prince Rebecq-Montmorency and the Marshal Van Isenghien, visited him secretly, and offered him poison, as a means of evading the disgrace of a public execution. On his refusing to take it, they left him with high indignation. “Miserable man!” said they, “you are fit only to perish by the hand of the executioner!”
The Marquis de Créqui sought the executioner of Paris, to bespeak an easy and decent death — for the unfortunate youth. “Do not make him suffer,” said he; “uncover no part of him but the neck; and have his body placed in a coffin, before you deliver it to his family.” The executioner promised all that was requested, but declined a rouleau of a hundred louis-
d’ors which the Marquis would have put into his hand. “I am paid by the king for fulfilling my office,” said he; and added that he had already refused a like sum, offered by another relation of the Marquis.
The Marquis de Créqui returned home in a state of deep affliction. There he found a letter from the Duke de St. Simon, the familiar friend of the Regent, repeating the promise of that prince, that the punishment of the wheel should be commuted to decapitation.
“Imagine,” says the Marchioness de Créqui, who in her memoirs gives a detailed account of this affair, “imagine what we experienced, and what was our astonishment, our grief, and indignation, when, on Tuesday, the 26th of March, an hour after midday, word was brought us that the Count Van Horn had been exposed on the wheel, in the Place de Gréve, since half-past six in the morning, on the same scaffold with the Piedmontese de Mille, and that he had been tortured previous to execution!”
One more scene of aristocratic pride closed this tragic story. The Marquis de Créqui, on receiving this astounding news, immediately arrayed himself in the uniform of a general officer, with his cordon of nobility on the coat. He ordered six valets to attend him in grand livery, and two of his carriages, each with six horses, to be brought forth. In this sumptuous state, he set off for the Place de Gréve, where he had been preceded by the Princes de Ligne, de Rohan, de Croüy, and the Duke de Havré.
The Count Van Horn was already dead, and it was believed that the executioner had had the charity to give him the coup de grace, or “deathblow,” at eight o’clock in the morning. At five o’clock in the evening, when the Judge Commissary left his post at the Hotel de Ville, these noblemen, with their own hands, aided to detach the mutilated remains of their relation; the Marquis de Crequi placed them in one of his carriages, and bore them off to his hotel, to receive the last sad obsequies.
The conduct of the Regent in this affair excited general indignation. His needless severity was attributed by some to vindictive jealousy; by others to the persevering machinations of Law. The house of Van Horn, and the high nobility of Flanders and Germany, considered themselves flagrantly outraged: many schemes of vengeance were talked of, and a hatred engendered against the Regent, that followed him through life, and was wreaked with bitterness upon his memory after his death.
The following letter is said to have been written to the Regent by the Prince Van Horn, to whom the former had adjudged the confiscated effects of the Count:
“I do not complain, Sir, of the death of my brother, but I complain that your Royal Highness has violated in his person the rights of the kingdom, the nobility, and the nation. I thank you for the confiscation of his effects; but I should think myself as much disgraced as he, should I accept any favor at your hands. I hope that God and the King may render to you as strict justice as you have rendered to my unfortunate brother.”
The Short Stories
Lafayette Street Elementary School — Irving’s place of education. He was a disinterested student, often sneaking out to attend a nearby theatre. One of his teachers went so far as to label the future author a ‘dunce’.
LIST OF SHORT STORIES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
THE AUTHOR’S ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF
THE VOYAGE.
ROSCOE.
THE WIFE.
RIP VAN WINKLE.
ENGLISH WRITERS ON AMERICA.
RURAL LIFE IN ENGLAND.
THE BROKEN HEART.
THE ART OF BOOK-MAKING.
A ROYAL POET.
THE COUNTRY CHURCH.
THE WIDOW AND HER SON.
A SUNDAY IN LONDON
THE BOAR’S HEAD TAVERN, EASTCHEAP.
THE MUTABILITY OF LITERATURE.
RURAL FUNERALS.
THE INN KITCHEN.
THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM.
WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
CHRISTMAS.
THE STAGECOACH.
CHRISTMAS EVE.
CHRISTMAS DAY.
THE CHRISTMAS DINNER.
LONDON ANTIQUES.
LITTLE BRITAIN.
STRATFORD-ON-AVON.
TRAITS OF INDIAN CHARACTER.
PHILIP OF POKANOKET.
JOHN BULL.
THE PRIDE OF THE VILLAGE.
THE ANGLER.
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW.
L’ENVOY.*
THE HALL.
THE BUSY MAN.
FAMILY SERVANTS.
THE WIDOW.
THE LOVERS.
FAMILY RELIQUES.
AN OLD SOLDIER.
THE WIDOW’S RETINUE.
READY-MONEY JACK.
BACHELORS.
A LITERARY ANTIQUARY.
THE FARMHOUSE
HORSEMANSHIP.
LOVE SYMPTOMS.
FALCONRY.
HAWKING.
FORTUNE-TELLING.
LOVE-CHARMS.
A BACHELOR’S CONFESSIONS.
GIPSIES.
VILLAGE WORTHIES.
THE SCHOOLMASTER
THE SCHOOL.
A VILLAGE POLITICIAN.
THE ROOKERY.
MAY-DAY.
THE CULPRIT.
LOVERS’ TROUBLES.
THE WEDDING.
THE STOUT GENTLEMAN.
THE STUDENT OF SALAMANCA.
ANNETTE DELARBRE.
DOLPH HEYLIGER.
FLETCHER’S WIFE FOR A MONTH.
A HUNTING DINNER.
THE ADVENTURE OF MY UNCLE.
THE ADVENTURE OF MY AUNT.
THE BOLD DRAGOON
THE ADVENTURE OF THE GERMAN STUDENT
THE ADVENTURE OF THE MYSTERIOUS PICTURE.
THE ADVENTURE OF THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER.
THE STORY OF THE YOUNG ITALIAN.
LINES FROM AN INN WINDOW.
LITERARY LIFE.
A LITERARY DINNER.
THE CLUB OF QUEER FELLOWS.
THE POOR DEVIL AUTHOR.
BUCKTHORNE, OR THE YOUNG MAN OF GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
THE BOOBY SQUIRE.
THE STROLLING MANAGER.
THE INN AT TERRACINA.
THE ADVENTURE OF THE LITTLE ANTIQUARY.
THE ADVENTURE OF THE POPKINS FAMILY.
THE PAINTER’S ADVENTURE.
THE STORY OF THE BANDIT CHIEFTAIN.
THE STORY OF THE YOUNG ROBBER.
FOUND AMONG THE PAPERS OF THE LATE DIEDRICH KNICKERBOCKER
HELL GATE.
KIDD THE PIRATE.
THE DEVIL AND TOM WALKER.
WOLFERT WEBBER; OR, GOLDEN DREAMS.
THE ADVENTURE OF SAM, THE BLACK FISHERMAN.
COMMONLY DENOMINATED MUD SAM.
THE JOURNEY.
PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA.
NOTE ON MORISCO ARCHITECTURE
IMPORTANT NEGOTIATIONS. THE AUTHOR SUCCEEDS TO THE THRONE OF BOABDIL.
INHABITANTS OF THE ALHAMBRA.
THE HALL OF AMBASSADORS.
THE JESUITS’ LIBRARY.
ALHAMAR. THE FOUNDER OF THE ALHAMBRA.
YUSEF ABUL HAGIG. THE FINISHER OF THE ALHAMBRA.
THE MYSTERIOUS CHAMBERS.
PANORAMA FROM THE TOWER OF COMARES.
THE TRUANT.
THE BALCONY.
LEGEND OF THE ARABIAN ASTROLOGER.
NOTE TO “THE ARABIAN ASTROLOGER”
THE COURT OF LIONS.
THE ABENCERRAGES.
MEMENTOS OF BOABDIL.
PUBLIC FETES OF GRANADA.
LOCAL TRADITIONS.
THE HOUSE OF THE WEATHERCOCK.
VISITORS TO THE ALHAMBRA.
RELICS AND GENEALOGIES.
THE GENERALIFE.
LEGEND OF PRINCE AHMED AL KAMEL, OR, THE PILGRIM OF LOVE.
A RAMBLE AMONG THE HILLS.
LEGEND OF THE MOOR’S LEGACY.
THE TOWER OF LAS INFANTAS.
LEGEND OF THE THREE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESSES.
LEGEND OF THE ROSE OF THE ALHAMBRA.
THE VETERAN.
THE GOVERNOR AND THE NOTARY.
GOVER
NOR MANCO AND THE SOLDIER.
A FETE IN THE ALHAMBRA.
LEGEND OF THE TWO DISCREET STATUES.
THE CRUSADE OF THE GRAND MASTER OF ALCANTARA.
SPANISH ROMANCE.
LEGEND OF DON MUNIO SANCHO DE HINOJOSA.
POETS AND POETRY OF MOSLEM ANDALUS.
AN EXPEDITION IN QUEST OF A DIPLOMA.
THE LEGEND OF THE ENCHANTED SOLDIER.
NOTES TO “THE ENCHANTED SOLDIER”.
THE AUTHOR’S FAREWELL TO GRANADA.
MOUNTJOY OR SOME PASSAGES OUT OF THE LIFE OF A CASTLE-BUILDER
THE GREAT MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE
DON JUAN
BROEK OF THE DUTCH PARADISE
SKETCHES IN PARIS IN 1825 FROM THE TRAVELING NOTEBOOK OF GEOFFREY CRAYON, GENT.
MY FRENCH NEIGHBOR
THE ENGLISHMAN AT PARIS
ENGLISH AND FRENCH CHARACTER
THE TUILERIES AND WINDSOR CASTLE
THE FIELD OF WATERLOO
PARIS AT THE RESTORATION
AMERICAN RESEARCHES IN ITALY. LIFE OF TASSO: RECOVERY OF A LOST PORTRAIT OF DANTE
THE TAKING OF THE VEIL
THE CHARMING LETORIÈRES
THE EARLY EXPERIENCES OF RALPH RINGWOOD
THE SEMINOLES
ORIGIN OF THE WHITE, THE RED, AND THE BLACK MEN
THE CONSPIRACY OF NEAMATHLA
LETTER FROM GRANADA
ABDERAHMAN. FOUNDER OF THE DYNASTY OF THE OMMIADES OF SPAIN
THE WIDOW’S ORDEAL
THE CREOLE VILLAGE
A CONTENTED MAN
A CHRONICLE OF WOLFERT’S ROOST.
SLEEPY HOLLOW.
THE BIRDS OF SPRING.
RECOLLECTIONS OF THE ALHAMBRA.
THE ABENCERRAGE.
THE ENCHANTED ISLAND.
THE ADELANTADO OF THE SEVEN CITIES.
NATIONAL NOMENCLATURE.
DESULTORY THOUGHTS ON CRITICISM.
SPANISH ROMANCE.
LEGEND OF DON MUNIO SANCHO DE HINOJOSA.
COMMUNIPAW.
Complete Fictional Works of Washington Irving (Illustrated) Page 182
