Guilder

“ You certainly don't think a tune on your pipe is worth one thousand guilders? There is no work in that.
Second Councilman. The rats are dead and can't come to life again, I think!
Mayor. My friend, we are much obliged, of course. We are much obliged and will gladly give you fifty guilders. You know your time is not worth more. ”

“ Art. 17. The Schepens may give final judgment upon arrests for all sums not exceeding 100 guilders. For sums exceeding 100 guilders, the aggrieved party may appeal to the Director General and council. ”

“ In the little town one man could readily perform all these duties. He also presided in Court. An offender could thus be arrested, prosecuted, and judged, by one and the same person, which seems to us scarcely judicious; but the bench of magistrates had one useful power, that of mitigating and altering the sentence demanded by the schout. Often a fine of one hundred guilders would be reduced to twenty-five ”

“ Should it happen, which God forbid, that any mischief occur either from enemies or traitors at night, the people will be notified by the discharge of three cannon fired in quick succession; and if by day, means will be found to give warning to every one, who is commanded thereupon to repair instantly to his Corporal at the place appointed and then to adopt such measures as the exigency of the case shall require, on pain of being fined Fifty guilders. ”

“ He had to pay a fine of twelve guilders for affronting both fire inspector and court messenger. He first insulted the brandt-meester who came to inspect his chimney, and was fined, then he called the bode who came to collect the fine “a little cock booted and spurred.” The Court in sentence said with dignity, “It is not meet that men should mock and scoff at persons appointed to any office, yea a necessary office.” ”

“ They apportion their land according as each has means to contribute to the eighteen thousand guilders which they have promised to those who had sent them out; [159] whereby they have their freedom without rendering an account to anyone. ”

“ The terror of his look is lost in love,
In fond, paternal love.
Enter Guildford.
Guild. Come to my arms,
And there conceal that penetrating eye,
Lest it should read what I would hide for ever,
Would hide from all, but most would hide from thee——
Thy father's grief, his shame, his rage, his tears.
Em. Tears! heaven and earth! see if he does not weep!
Guild. He who has drawn this sorrow from my eyes
Shall pay me back again in tears of blood.
'Tis for thy sake I weep.
Em. Ah, weep for me?
Hear, Heaven, and judge; hear, Heaven, and punish me!
If any crime of mine——
Guild. ”

“ The fellow who acts as judge looks at the jury, who are all their creatures; they say 'Guilty 'and he says' Death!' and the accused are marched off again to the prison, to wait until their turn comes for the guillotine. Well you see, if this prison was broken into as you propose, and it was known that the sailors had a hand in it, the chances are that they would march a couple of hundred of us into the great square, which would be choke full of the National Guard and volunteers, and just shoot us down. ”

“ All bore themselves with a noble and proud courage; and now some five or six alone remained, of whose fate none seemed to guess the issue, [Pg 8] since they had been taken from the Temple by some mistake, and were not included in the list of the commissary. There they sat, at the foot of the scaffold, speechless and stupefied—they looked as though it were matter of indifference to which side their steps should turn—to the jail or the guillotine. ”

“ A trial was about to commence. ‘Sheriff, is p. 186your inquest in court?’ said the Mayor. ‘Yes, my lord,’ replied the sheriff, ‘and, I am proud to say, it will be an excellent jury for the crown. I myself have picked and chosen every man upon the panel. I have spoken to them all; and there is not one whom I have not examined carefully, not only as to his knowledge of the offences of which the prisoner stands charged, but of all the circumstances from which his guilt can be collected, suspected, or inferred. ”

“ So, without evincing the least surprise, he simply took the female prisoner, named in the warrant "Faustina Dugald," to be—just what she was—a fallen angel who had dropped into the clutches of the law; and the male prisoner, named in the warrant "Malcolm Dugald, Viscount Vincent," to be—what he was—a noble rogue, guilty of being found out. ”

“ The guild officers sat as a guild court to determine discipline for offences such as false weights or measures or false workmanship or work and decided trade disputes. The brethren in guild fraternity were classified as masters, journeymen, or apprentices. They were expected to contribute to the support of the sick and impoverished in their fellowship. Their code required social action such as ostracizing a man of the craft who was living in adultery until he mended his ways.
The rules of the Company of Glovers were:
1. None but a freeman of the city shall make or sell gloves. ”

“ And afterwards there had been the assize court, the judges, the gendarmes, the witnesses, the whole of France arrayed against one man and bent on making him pay for the universal crime. And finally, there had come the guillotine, the monstrous, the filthy beast consummating irreparable injustice in human justice's name. One sole idea now remained to Guillaume, that idea of justice which maddened him, leaving naught in his mind save the thought of the just, avenging flare by which he would repair the evil and ensure that which was right for all time forward. ”

“ By holding up your hand, you show also that you are free in the dock; for the law of England will not allow the worst criminal to be fettered during his trial.
“The clerk of assize then continues, ‘You stand indicted by the name of John Wardleur, for that you,’ &c. &c., giving an abstract of the indictment. ‘How say you, John Wardleur, do you plead “Guilty,” or “Not Guilty?”’—not, ‘Are you guilty or not guilty?’ as some officials persist in demanding, for that is a question for the jury to decide. But whether he pleads ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty,’ is a question for the prisoner himself ”

“ A fine self-sacrificial rapture illumined his wild face.
“Let me be hurled into the bottomless pit,” he cried, “that so the Millennium may rise in the east like an August sun!”
“Now,” said I, “I will commune with my soul during the night, that perchance it may be revealed to me how the guillotine may guillotine itself.”
To my surprise the ridiculous bait took, and the poor wretch sunk down upon his straw and uttered no further word. Crossing the cell to come to my own heap, my foot struck against an iron ring that projected from a flag. ”

“ And about the same time a person, wearing the garb of a convict, made his way to one of Her Majesty's Prisons, and requested an interview with the Governor. His garb obtained for him immediate admission to the precincts of the gaol.
"Well, my man," said the Governor, when his visitor appeared before him; "what do you want?"
"If you please, Sir," replied the person in the garb of a convict, "I shall be very much obliged if you will permit me to have an hour or so at oakum-picking." ”

“ The officer to the right, with a list of condemned criminals, calls out the names of those to be put to death, each one fearing that his or her name will be next called to join the procession to the guillotine on the Place de la Concorde. ”

“ Since the law of the 22d of Prairial, the Revolutionary Tribunal sent each day sixty persons to the scaffold. One of the buildings of Le Plesis served as a depot to the Conciergerie, so every morning twenty prisoners could be seen departing for the guillotine. ‘The thought of soon being one of the victims,’ my mother wrote, ‘makes one endure such a sight with more firmness.’ Twice she fancied that she was being called to take her place amongst the victims. ”

“ There was an expression on the face of the officers impossible to be misunderstood; frowningly, darkly, they obeyed their sovereign's mandate, simply because they dared not disobey; but there was not one among them who would not rather have sought the most deadly front of battle than thus conduct a woman, aye, and a most noble one, unto her prison. The very men, rude, stern, as they mostly were, shared this feeling ”

“ Mr Serjeant, continued Guillermo, you see I have told you the whole truth; I know that after this confession you may ruin me by discovering it to my master; but it you please to serve, instead of undoing me, I swear that my acknowledgments——You are a very fine person, Mr Guillermo, said the soldier. You propose to me to support a trick: It is a serious affair, which requires mature deliberation: but the consequences hurry me on. ”

“ By this time, the populace were not only masters of the area around, but had also gained the scaffold itself, from which many of them seemed endeavoring to harangue the mob; others contenting themselves with imitating the gestures of the commissary and his functionaries. It was a scene of the wildest uproar and confusion—frantic cries and screams, ribald songs and fiendish yellings on every side. The guillotine was again uncovered, and the great crimson drapery, torn into fragments, was waved about like flags, or twisted into uncouth head-dresses. ”

“ The jury, who were deeply affected, then retired, and, after two hours’ absence, returned a verdict of Guilty.
The English Method, reported in a London Paper. End of the First Day.
The prisoner, who was ably represented by counsel, appeared to be deeply sensible of his position. He kept his eyes on the jury during the brief summing up.
His Lordship said that he trusted the jury would give the benefit of any doubt they might feel in the prisoner’s favour. In so serious a case they must not convict unless they were convinced of his guilt. ”

“ When the gates were opened, a body of men in the livery of the Sheriff presented themselves, the leader of whom said, "In the name of the King, and by the authority of his Sheriff, Ranulph de Glanville, I demand to be delivered up to me the bodies of Gilbert de Plumpton and of Eleanor de Guilevast, a ward of the Crown, who has been treacherously carried off from her home by the said Gilbert, in violation of the laws of the realm, and in traitorous contempt of the King's authority." ”

“ But believe me that the guillotine would have no terror for me. I have betrayed a great trust, for you are the enemy of my kindred and my King, and I ought not to have failed when the choice lay betwixt your life and theirs. ”

“ As every one knows the Revolutionary Tribunal is in the same building with the conciergerie. A prisoner may be brought from his cell in the prison into the tribunal chamber, be tried, sentenced, and returned to his dungeon without once being obliged to go outside. He only passes out into the streets on his way to the guillotine. ”

“ Then following immediately on it and as suddenly as though no sound had been raised, fell a death-like silence; for Judge and prisoner are face to face—eye to eye. But though he were asked a thousand times, the prisoner has nothing to offer—except the simple words—“I am innocent.” Men whisper each other that he seems stunned. ”

“ When persons by scores and hundreds were to be taken out of prison for the guillotine, it was always done in the night, and those who performed that office had a private mark, or signal, by which they knew what rooms to go to, and what number to take. ”

“ He uttered a few words of thanks; but what endeared his success to him was the prospect of crushing his enemies as he was then crushing a wreath in his hand. Looking towards the Right, he muttered: "I have them now. They too, shall have a triumphant progress, but it shall be to the guillotine." ”

“ FROME. If your lordship says so—I do most earnestly beg your lordship to give the utmost weight to my plea. [He sits down.]
THE JUDGE. [To the CLERK] Call upon him.
THE CLERK. Prisoner at the bar, you stand convicted of felony. Have you anything to say for yourself, why the Court should not give you judgment according to law? [FALDER shakes his head]
THE JUDGE. William Falder, you have been given fair trial and found guilty, in my opinion rightly found guilty, of forgery. ”

“ Even according to the dictates of these apostles of Fraternity: "la guillotine va toujours"—the guillotine goes on always. She had become the most potent factor in the machinery of government, of this great Revolution, and she had been daily, almost hourly fed through the activity of this nameless club, which held its weird and awesome sittings in the dank coffee-room of the Cheval Borgne. ”

“ They were all brought to the bar by Robert Guillaumet, the bailiff, and appeared128 on the side of the prosecutor and against the defendant. The oath which the witnesses took is given in substance in the record. They were sworn between the hands of the Bishop and the Vice-Inquisitor, as Gilles and the prosecutor had been, and their oath was that neither favour, nor resentment, nor fear, nor hate, nor friendship, nor relationship, should have any part in their words; and they put aside every spirit of party and all personal affection, having regard only for truth and justice. ”

“ In the examination of the evidence everybody is aware that the Judge, the counsel on both sides, and the witnesses, are straining all their ingenuity to prevent a verdict against the prisoners; and everybody sympathises with their endeavours. His Lordship, in his charge to the jury, explains to them again that every man killed in a duel is murdered ”

“ Thus, if a Man dares to strike another in the King’s Court, or within two hundred feet from the Palace Gate (which kind of offence has been always looked upon by Kings as a great piece of insolence) all the different Officers in the Kitchen are to co-operate in the Man’s punishment. The Serjeant of the Wood-yard is to bring a block of wood to fasten the Culprit’s hands to: for the punishment is no less than to have it cut off. ”

“ The Under Sheriff, before whom the inquest was held, did every thing that man could do to prevail upon the jury to return a verdict of a farthing damages, contending that they must return a verdict of some damage. The foreman very sensibly remarked, "if you have called a witness who has sworn that there was not the smallest particle of damage done, how can we, upon our oath, say there was some damage?" ”