Robert Francois, an assassin, who wounded Louis XV. of France in 1757. He was born in a village of Artois in 1715, and early enlisted in the army. After his discharge from service he became a novitiate in the College of the Jesuits in Paris, and was dismissed from this as well as from other employments for misconduct. During the disputes of Clement XI. with the parliament of Paris, the mind of Damiens seems to have been excited by the ecclesiastical disorganization which followed the refusal of the clergy to grant the sacraments to the Jansenists and Convulsionnaires; and he seems to have thought that peace would be restored by the death of the king. It is probable, however, that he designed no more than the infliction of a slight wound. Having been condemned as a regicide, he was torn in pieces by horses in the Place de Grève, March 28, 1757. Before being put to death, he was barbarously tortured for an hour and a half with red hot pincers, molten wax, lead, and boiling oil—all which he endured with unflinching fortitude.