 On this occasion people from all walks of life turned up to witness the edifying prospect of a handsome gentleman of rank, elegantly dressed, and in the prime of life, being ceremoniously butchered in public — "pour décourager les autres", French for "to discourage others".De la Motte's life and execution resonated in the imagination of writers like Charles Dickens and W. M. Thackeray.The drama and language of the trial scene of Charles Darnay in "A Tale of Two Cities" is very close to that of de la Motte's trial, with Dickens emphasising the grotesqueness and the gruesomeness of the proceedings in his inimitable manner.