The Gazette

French Savages!

[Extract from Moore's Journal]

A GENTLEMAN of character, on whose veracity I have reliance, informed me that he was at Versailles on the day that the massacre of the prisoners from Orleans happened: he had left Paris that morning, and on his arrival at Versailles, heard that the prisoners were expected: but had no idea when he set out, nor did he observe any thing after he arrived at Versailles, which gave him a suspicion of such an event; he went and walked a considerable time in the gardens; during this interval the prisoners arrived, and that most atrocious scene of bloodshed was performed. On his return from the gardens, he saw the mangled bodies of fifty-two men lying in a street on the left hand as you go to the Chateau from Paris! Some of the lower sort of the inhabitants of Versailles were looking on; the rest, struck with horror, were shut up in their shops and houses. The body of the Duke of Brissac was pointed out; the head and one of the hands was cut off! a man stood near smoking tobacco, with his sword drawn, & a human hand stuck on its point! another fellow walked carelessly among the bodies with the entire arm of another of the prisoners fixed to the point of his sword. This gentleman afterwards saw a waggon arrive, into which was thrown as many of the slaughtered bodies as the horses could draw! a boy of about fourteen years of age was within the waggon assisting to receive the bodies as they were put in, and packing them in the most convenient manner, with an air of as much indifference as if they had been so many parcels of goods! One of the wretches who threw in the dead bodies, and probably had assisted in the massacre, said to the spectators, in praise of the boy's activity, "Look at this little man, how brave he is!"

The assassins of the prisoners were a party who had come from Paris on the preceding evening, most of them in post chaises for that purpose, and who attacked those unhappy men while they remained in the street waiting till the gate of the prison which was prepared for their reception should be opened.

The miserable prisoners being all unarmed, and some of them fettered, could do nothing in their own defence: they were most of them stabbed, but a few who attempted resistance, were cut down with sabres.