efore the Revolutionary tribunal.
The officers found her lying upon her pallet in the prison, surrounded
by other wretched victims of lawless violence, scarcely able to raise
her head from her pillow. She entreated them to leave her to die where
she was. One of the officers leaned over her bed, and whispered to her
that they were her friends, and that her life depended upon her entire
compliance with their directions. She immediately arose and accompanied
the guard down the prison stairs to the door. There two brutal-looking
wretches, covered with blood, stood waiting to receive her. As they
grasped her arms, she fainted. It was long before she recovered. As soon
as she revived she was led before the judges. "Swear," said one of them,
"that you love liberty and equality; and swear that you hate all kings
and queens." "I am willing to swear the first," she replied, "but as to
hatred of kings and queens, I can not swear it, for it is not in my
heart." Another judge, moved with pity by her youth and innocence, bent
over her and whispered, "Swear any thing, or you are lost." She still
remained silent. "Well," said one, "you may go, but when you get into
the street, shout _Vive la nation!_" The court-yard was filled with
assassins, who cut down, with pikes and bludgeons, the condemned as they
were led out from the court, and the mutilated and gory bodies of the
slain were strewn over the pavement. Two soldiers took her by the arm to
lead her out. As she passed from the door, the dreadful sight froze her
heart with terror, and she exclaimed, forgetful of the peril, "O God!
how horrible!" One of the soldiers, by a friendly impulse, immediately
covered her mouth, with his hand, that her exclamations might not be
heard. She was led into the street, filled with assassins thirsting for
the blood of the Royalists, and had advanced but a few steps, when a
journeyman barber, staggering with intoxication and infuriated with
carnage, endeavored, in a kind of brutal jesting, to strike her cap from
her head with his long pike. The blow fell upon her forehead, cutting a
deep gash, and the blood gushed out over her face. The assassins around,
deeming this the signal for their onset, fell upon her. A blow from a
bludgeon laid her dead upon the pavement. One, seizing her by the hair,
with a saber cut off her head. Others tore her garments from her
graceful limbs, and, cutting her body into fragments, paraded the
mutilated remains upon their pi