apprehension had succeeded to the first instinctive and kingly impulse of courage; he feared the weapon might be poisoned, and hastily sent for a confessor.
The crowd of courtiers was already thronging to the dauphin's.

To him the king had at once given up the direction of affairs.
[Illustration: Assassination of Louis XV.

by Damiens----221] Justice, meanwhile, had taken the wretched murderer in hand.

Robert Damiens was a lackey out of place, a native of Artois, of weak mind, and sometimes appearing to be deranged.

In his vague and frequently incoherent depositions, he appeared animated by a desire to avenge the wrongs of the Parliament; he burst out against the Archbishop of Paris, Christopher de Beaumont, a virtuous prelate of narrow mind and austere character.