Sébastien-Roch Nicolas de CHAMFORT (1741-1794),... Lot n° 49

Autograph manuscript. S.d. 1 p. ½ in-16. Moral anecdote. "A famous butcher in London amassed up to three hundred thousand guineas by swindling. He committed a crime for which he was sentenced to hang. He offered 25,000 guineas to the executioner and 25,000 to the surgeon if one hanged him badly and the other treated him well and resuscitated him. It is the executioner's privilege to put a tie on the patient's collar in which the executioner must put cotton to soften the effect of the rope. He did this unnecessarily. The hanged man, sensing that it was getting serious, said quietly, "There isn't enough cotton"