A lost article by a former French executioner reveals King Louis XVI was calm and proclaimed his innocence when he was killed.
The article by Paris Chief Executioner Charles Henri Sanson was written for a revolutionary journal because Sanson wanted to set the record straight on the death.
It was previously thought that Louis was forced to the scaffold by gunpoint and cried when he got there, The Times of London reports.
Sanson wrote that Louis was calm and allowed himself to be tied up.
His last words were to the executioners: "Gentlemen, I am innocent of everything of which I am accused. I wish that my blood may be able to cement the happiness of the French."
After the beheading in 1793, France moved from a monarchy to a republic.
Sanson executed nearly 3,000 people as chief executioner.
© Copyright 2006 by United Press International
