The following anecdote is on its rounds:—
At the execution of the murderer Gagny, at Troyes recently, an incident took place, the like of which had never before been witnessed in France. The condemned man, during his trial and final imprisonment, did not evince the least fear. When, on the morning of the fatal day, he was roused from sleep, and informed that his hour was come, he received the intelligence quite calmly. He arose, attended to his last religious duties, ate a hearty breakfast, had his toilet made, asked for a good glass of brandy, and said he was ready to go. He walked between his attendants with firm step and a look of resolute courage, almost of defiance; but when he came in front of the ghastly instrument of death, and glanced upward at it, he turned almost white. At the same time his body became inert. He was lifted up on the bascule, where he lay for twenty-five awful seconds before the knife fell. Meantime he did not, stir. When the head was severed from the body the blood did not spurt eight or nine feet, as is common in such cases. When the attending physicians were given charge of the body, they found the heart filled with coagulated blood. This they explained by the fact that when Gagny looked at the machine and turned suddenly white, his heart ceased its action. The man was dead before the knife touched him.
