Less than half an hour later, monsieur, citizen Laporte, one of the most
skilful doctors in France and one of the most bloodthirsty tyrants this
execrable Revolution has known, was sitting at the bedside of M. le
Vicomte de Mortaine, using all the skill, all the knowledge he possessed
in order to combat the dread disease of which the child was dying, ere
he came to save him--as he cynically remarked in my hearing--for the
guillotine.