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80 VIOLENCE AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT
who had held the office of Public Minister at the trial in
Levallois. It was only by chance, on the accusation of
a boy by the name of Lherot, who was employed in a
restaurant, that the police eventually captured Ravachol.
He admitted having exploded the bombs in rue de Clichy
and Boulevard Saint-Germain, "in order to avenge," he
said, "the abominable violences committed against our
friends, Decamps, Leveille, and Dardare." (i) On
April 26 a bomb was exploded in the restaurant where
Lherot, the informer, worked, killing the proprietor and
severely wounding one of the patrons.
The public was thrown into a state of dreadful alarm.
The next day, when Ravachol was brought to trial, some
awful foreboding seemed to possess those who were present.
All Paris was guarded. In spite of the efforts of
the Public Minister, the jury spared Ravachol on the
ground of extenuating circumstances. It is difficult to
say whether it was fear or pity that determined the decision
of the jurors. In any case, Ravachol was acquitted,
only to be condemned to death a few months later
for strangling the hermit of Chambles, and he was then
executed.
"What shall one think of Ravachol" says Prolo in
Les Anarchistes. "He assassinated a mendicant, he broke
into tombs in order to steal jewels, he manufactured counterfeit
money, or, more exactly, substituting himself for
the State, he cast five-franc pieces in silver, with the
authentic standard, and put them in circulation. Lastly,
he dynamited some property. He is of mystical
origin. Profoundly religious in his early youth, he
embraces with the same ardor, the same passion, and
the same spirit of sacrifice the new political theory of
equality.
He throws himself deliberately outside the limits
of the society which he abhors— kills, robs, and