LaBarre appealed against the cruel sentence. The instance of appeal for the Seneschals Court was the Parliament in Paris. Chevalier De Labarre was brought there and the trial re-opened. Ten of the most famous lawyers of Paris submitted a report in which they expounded that the procedures had been illegal and minors had been trusted. The public attorney, July De Fleury, whom Voltaire badly informed, had decided in favor of the defendant and decided to repeal the sentence at Abbeville. He proved to the contrary to be pitiless. The case was treated summarily without any solemnity, in a fewminutes, between the case of a washer woman, who had stolen laundry, and the case of a clerk indicted of a theft of minor importance. The judges adopted the opinion already expressed and as only indignities of the first decision they decided that the convicted should be beheaded before being surrendered to the flames.

LaBarre was brought back to Abbeville to be executed there on July 1, 1766. The dreadful execution took place at Abbeville. The convict had first to suffer the tortures of the "Boots". He fainted, but regained consciousness by the application of liquors and declared without complaint that he had no acoomplices. He was given a Dominican Monk, a friend of his aunt, the Abbess, to have him confess. The good man wept and the Chevalier consoled him. They were served a dinner but the Dominican could not eat. "Let us have some food," said De Chevalier to him. "You will need force as well as I in order to stand the spectacle which I am going to give."

The spectacle, indeed, must have been terrible. The headsman, Sanson, and three assistants were sent from Paris to the execution. It was said, to mitigate a little the horror of such torture, the utmost the clergy would consent to, was the concession that Chevalier De LaBarre should not have his tongue torn out; but this is an error. The accounts of Sanson were recovered by M.J. Cruppi, who published them in the Revue de Duex Mondes (1895). They show the following record (1) Apology in front of church, 20 livres, (2) for cutting off the convicts tongue, 20 livres, (3) for beheading, a 100 livres.

This is the truth, which not even Voltaire had known entirely. The body of the unfortunate young man was put on the pole with the Philosophic Dictionary and some other books and burned. The injustice if this condemnation and the atrocity of the tortured which followed it, made such an impression on the public opinion that the judges of Abbeville did not dare to pursue this abominable process. Some of LaBarre's friends were released after having been arrested and threatened with the same fate. The judges were forced to flee the country fearing to be stoned by the people. The trial of the other prisoners, indictments and inquisitions were cancelled. Voltaire shows an admirable courage in stigmatizing LaBarre's murderers, but though this kind of justice seems to be sad and dispicable, such excess of fanaticism has the good result of preparing the end of fanaticism.

The torture of LaBarre, which will be an indelible mark of shame on the French magistry, the French Nation and Papacy, contributes largely to the triumph of the freedom of conscience. This was a terrible way to suggest, by examples, philosophic doctrines. The revolution broke out, prepared, more through the crimes of the former government, than by the predications of the philosophers.

The National Convention could not possibly forget one of the most unfortunate victims of Papal superstition. The following decision was unanimously adopted on the 25th of Brumaire (October), 2nd year