The last twenty-four hours of Louis XVI's life were marked by a number of facts which showed in an unexpected light both the executed king himself and the French people as a whole.

Fact #1: Louis XVI's unexpected reaction to the death sentence.

In the morning of 20 January 1793 Louis XVI was read the death sentence, which was to be executed within 24 hours (i.e. the next morning, 21 January 1793).

In this case, from the ‘typhoon and willless subaltern’ expected any reaction, but not such a reaction, which occurred:

Louis XVI c Olympic calm listened to the death sentence read to him by the Minister of Justice. Then indifferently ran the fatal paper handed to him with his eyes, carelessly folded it in half and slipped it into his camisole pocket like some kind of napkin.

It was evidently a game. But it proves once again what resources the human body can tap into in a stressful situation.

Fact #2: Louis XVI did not say goodbye to Marie Antoinette before her execution.

After Louis XVI was given an estimated sentence, he asked his jailers for a last visit with his family. This request was granted and the king said goodbye to Marie-Antoinette, the Dauphin Louis-Charles, daughter Marie-Thérèse (later known as Madame Royal) and younger sister Elisabeth on the same day.

However, before the rendezvous was over and Louis XVI was led away, Marie Antoinette literally hung around her husband's neck, begging him to say goodbye to her one more time in the morning before his execution.

The King agreed and said he would come at 7:00 a.m. sharp.

Nevertheless, the next morning, Louis XVI asked to tell his wife that he had decided to spare her the heartbreaking consequences of a final rendezvous, which she might not be able to bear.

This is despite the fact that the unfortunate Marie Antoinette probably did not sleep a wink all night to see her husband for the last time. Therefore, already in the XIX century, some royalists wondered: Why did the king did so?

It can be assumed that Louis XVI did not say goodbye to his wife one more time because he feared losing his presence of mind before his execution.

Fact #3: The disgusting mob frenzy after the execution of Louis XVI.

After executioner Sanson showed the French the severed head of Louis XVI, there was a deafening cry from the Parisians: ‘Long live the nation! Long live the republic! Long live liberty!’

At that moment the maddened people moved in a wall against the flimsy scaffold, and the executioner, in order to avoid unfortunate consequences, was forced to throw Louis XVI's camisole into the crowd, which was immediately torn to shreds in a few minutes.

Then a man climbed up on the scaffold and, dipping his hands into the vat into which the blood of the executed Louis XVI was flowing, began to splash it into the crowd with the words:

Republicans! We were threatened that the blood of Capet would fall on our heads! Here it is, and let it fall on our heads! The blood of kings brings happiness!

At the sight of this madness (memoirists later called it a bloody bacchanalia), even some of the most enthusiastic supporters of the revolution suddenly realised that terrible events were soon to await France.

Thus, the sworn enemy of Louis XVI, who had voted for his execution, Philippe Egalite (Equality), seeing this spontaneous bloody rite, was horrified, turned pale and hurriedly left the square.

And France was really ahead of revolutionary terror and almost 20 years of continuous Napoleonic wars.