or RAVALLAC, François, the assassin of Henri IV., of France, was born at Angoulême about 1578, and was at the time of his execution about thirty-two years of age. Ravallac was the son of humble parents, his father being one of those inferior retainers of the law to whom the vulgar give the name of pettebloggers, a profession to which his son had also been bred. He taught a school for some time, and seems to have been imprisoned for debt, which greatly affected his mind. His distress was so great that he had much ado to live. When he was seized for the murder of the king, he was very loosely guarded, and all were permitted to speak with him who pleased. He was removed next day from the house of Espernon to the Conciergerie, the proper prison of the Parliament of Paris. When he was first interrogated, he answered with great boldness, that he had done it, and would do it if it were to be done again. When he was told that the king, though dangerously wounded, was living, and might recover, he said that he had struck him home, and that he was sure he was dead. He persisted in the most solemn asseverations that he had no accomplices, and that nobody had persuaded him to the fact. He appeared surprised at nothing so much as at the universal abhorrence of the people, which, it seems, he did not expect. When he was put to the torture, he broke out into horrid execrations, and always insisted that he did the act from his own motive, and that he could accuse nobody. On the day of his execution, after he had made the amende before the church of Notre Dame, he was carried to the Grève; and, being placed upon a scaffold, was tied to a wooden engine in the shape of St. Andrew's cross. The knife with which he did the murder being fastened in his right hand, it was first burned in a slow fire; then the fleshy parts of his body were torn with red-hot pincers, and melted lead, oil, pitch, and resin poured into the wounds. The people refused to pay for him; and when, according to the sentence that had been pronounced upon him, he came to be dragged to pieces by four horses, one of those that were brought appearing to be but weak, a spectator offered his own, with which the criminal was much moved. He was very earnest for absolution, which his confessor refused, unless he would reveal his accomplices. "Give it me," said he, "upon condition that I have told the truth;" which the priest eventually did. His body resisted the force of the horses; and the executioner cut him into quarters, which the people dragged through the streets. There has just been published Le Procès du tres Mechant et Detestable Parricide Francois Ravallac, by Auguste Aubry, Paris, 1859, compiled from the original MSS. of the trial.