the execution and its message More than a hundred years later, when the time possible for the condemned to adress the crowd hardly existed, Marthe Tordo, executed in 1867 in Tourette-Levens, succinctly said: ”Prenez exemple – Je demande pardon à Dieu et aux hommes; je suis contente de mourir.” Also in France, however, in the nineteenth century rebellious delinquents could show their anger by insults and other protests, some blasphemous, by physical resistance, and by just not participating, for example by loudly proclaiming one’s innocence. The motives naturally could differ but the result was an execution far away from the ideals of state and church.377 The execution of Louis XVI was compared with the passion of Christ: the sacred king became a sacrifice.378 Unsurprisingly, the authorities made sure the king’s attempt to make a speech from the scaffold was drowned out by drums.379 A few decades later the Swedish professor Lars Rabenius may have been inspired by this event when he proposed there should be no singing at executions and absolutely no speech by the condemned – and if the condemned tried to speak, drums should silence him and the execution should proceed with haste.380 This was a significant change concerning the way in which the condemned was perceived. Capital punishment can be said to be the meeting between death and the transgressor, but when delinquents became increasingly invisible only their deaths remained visible. The former ’star performer’ was increasingly seen as an embarrassment, both in life and in death. In the past, many of those who had been condemned had given speeches of various kinds, sung hymns, and made confessions, but things were changing. Instead, only the scaffold waited for the condemned. 376 Carol 2017 p 102. ’Receive this example – I ask forgiveness from God and men; Iamsatisfied to die.’ 377 Carol 2017 p 74 sq, 118 sqq, 147, 182 sqq. 378 Preisendörfer 2000 p 78. 379 See e g Viguerie 2003 p 406. The behaviour was not new, in 1662 at the execution of Henry Vane at Tower Hill in London trumpets were played trying to drench his speech, Krischer 2008bp67. 380 Straffbalken by LGRabenius 7:9 vol 9 nr 6ÄK19RAS. 111
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