Biron (Armand Louis de Gontaut, Duc de Lauzun, French general-in-chief of the army of the Rhine), 1747-1793. "I have been false to my God, to my order, and to my king: I die full of faith and of repentance."
The executioner's messenger surprised him at a breakfast of oysters and white wine, and said he was at the duke's orders; to which the latter rejoined, "No morbleu, 'tis just the other way: I am at yours!" He then asked that he might be permitted to finish his breakfast, after which he answered the summons of the executioner.
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