尘封200年行刑者信件曝光 路易十六“平反”

摘要：
    1793年1月，法国资产阶级革命将国王路易十六送上了断头台。在大部分文学作品里，路易十六的形象多被刻画成昏庸无能、胆小懦弱，而日前公开的一封被尘封了200多年的行刑者信件中则写到：路易十六“死得像个君主”。
    French King Louis XVI died regally, according to his executioner's account written to correct reports that his nerve broke when faced with the revolutionary mob and the guillotine in January 1793.

    1793年1月，法国资产阶级革命将国王路易十六送上了断头台。在大部分文学作品里，路易十六的形象多被刻画成昏庸无能、胆小懦弱，而日前公开的一封被尘封了200多年的行刑者信件中则写到：路易十六“死得像个君主”。

    行刑者为路易十六“平反”

    据路透社4月9日报道，这篇日记出自法国大革命时期巴黎的一名行刑者查尔斯·亨里·桑松之手。

    桑松曾记录下1778年至1793年（他退休），他目睹过的2900人被执行死刑的过程。他在其中的一篇写给当时一家革命杂志的信中详细描写了路易十六上断头台的情景。

    据桑松记载，走上断头台的路易十六坚决不让别人替他脱掉外套，而是自己亲手脱下；最初，他也不同意自己的手被绑起来，但最终还是在劝说下答应了。

    桑松在信中说，在刀落下前，路易十六转向围观的群众大喊：“我死得很清白。”

    在信的，还有“巴黎，1793年2月20日，法兰西共和国年”等字样。信件尘封200年后将被拍卖。

    报道说，桑松这封记录路易十六在断头台上的信件将于6月7日在伦敦克里斯蒂拍卖行公开拍卖，估价12万英镑。据悉，法国作家夏多布里昂于1826年提到过这封信，之后在近200年的时间里它一直被一个秘密的家庭收藏，直到不久前才被公之于众。桑松对路易十六被处极刑时的描写与生活在法国的英国神父亨利·埃奇沃斯的记载相一致。埃奇沃斯曾经陪同路易十六乘坐马车前往刑场。

    路易十六被执行死刑的情景多被描写为：他在手枪的挟持下被迫走上断头台，并哭喊道：“我完了，我完了。”作为法国波旁王朝国王，路易十六在统治期间政治经济危机严重，实行财政改革又遭失败。法国资产阶级革命爆发后，他与王后玛丽·安东尼特以里通外国的反革命罪和阴谋复辟罪被处以死刑。1793年1月21日，路易十六在巴黎市中心的革命广场（今协和广场）被处死。9个月后，其王后也被执行死刑。

    French King Louis XVI died regally, according to his executioner's account written to correct reports that his nerve broke when faced with the revolutionary mob and the guillotine in January 1793.

    Now the original letter by Charles Henri Sanson, chief executioner of Paris as the revolution's reign of terror began, is to go under the hammer at Christie's in London on June 7 with a price of up to 120,000 pounds.

    Sanson details the demeanour of Louis, whose Austrian wife Marie Antoinette was executed nine months later and is famously said to have suggested that starving pre-revolutionary peasants should eat cake when their bread ran out.

    Lost from public view for nearly 200 years in the archives of an unnamed family, Sanson's account echoes that of Henry Edgeworth, a French-based English priest who accompanied Louis in the carriage to the guillotine.

    Sanson, who oversaw the execution of more than 2,900 people between 1778 and his retirement in April 1793, tells how Louis, at the foot of the scaffold, initially resisted having his coat removed for reasons of decorum but then took it off himself.

    He also did not want his hands tied at first, but was persuaded to comply.

    "To pay homage to the truth, he withstood all that with a composure and steadiness that astonished us all," Sanson wrote to the Thermometre du Jour revolutionary journal.

    "I remain very convinced that he had drawn this steadiness from the principles of religion, of which nobody more than he appeared deeply affected and persuaded," Sanson added.

    His account, last referred to by Chateaubriand in 1826, contradicted another version in circulation at the time that described Louis as having to be forced to mount the scaffold at pistol point, crying out: "I am lost, I am lost."

    In the moments before the blade fell, Sanson says Louis turned to the mob and proclaimed "People, I die innocent".

    He then turned to his executioners with the words: "Gentlemen, I am innocent of everything of which I am accused. I hope that my blood can cement the happiness of the French."

    In the letter, dated "Paris, 20 February 1793, first year of the French republic," Sanson signs off with the words:

    "You can be assured, citizen, that here is the truth in its greatest day."

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