rs and highwaymen of
men of rank and family.

Madame de Montrevel, overwhelmed by the part she had been made to play
at the crucial point of this drama, saw but one means of repairing the
evil she had done, and that was to start at once for Paris and fling
herself at the feet of the First Consul, imploring him to pardon the
four condemned men. She did not even take time to go to the Chateau des
Noires-Fontaines to see Amelie. She knew that Bonaparte's departure was
fixed for the first week in May, and this was already the 6th. When she
last left Paris everything had been prepared for that departure.

She wrote a line to Amelie explaining by what fatal deception she had
been instrumental in destroying the lives of four men, when she intended
to save the life of one. Then, as if ashamed of having broken the pledge
she had made to Amelie, and above all to herself, she ordered fresh
post-horses and returned to Paris.

She arrived there on the morning of the 8th of May. Bonaparte had
started on the evening of the 6th. He said on leaving that he was only
going to Dijon, possibly as far as Geneva, but in any case he should
not be absent more than three weeks. The prisoners' appeal, even if
rejected, would not receive final consideration for five or six weeks.
All hope need not therefore be abandoned.

But, alas! it became evident that the review at Dijon was only a
pretext, that the journey to Geneva had never been seriously thought of,
and that Bonaparte, instead of going to Switzerland, was really on his
way to Italy.

Then Madame de Montrevel, unwilling to appeal to her son, for she had
heard his oath when Lord Tanlay had been left for dead, and knew the
part he had played in the capture of the Companions of Jehu--then Madame
de Montrevel appealed to Josephine, and Josephine promised to write to
the First Consul. That same evening she kept her promise.

But the trial had made a great stir. It was not with these prisoners as
with ordinary men. Justice made haste, and thirty-five days after the
verdict had been rendered the appeal was rejected. This decision was
immediately sent to Bourg with an order to execute the prisoners within
twenty-four hours. But notwithstanding the haste of the minister of
police in forwarding this decision, the first intimation of the fatal
news was not received by the judicial authorities at Bourg. While the
prisoners were taking their daily walk in the courtyard a stone was
thrown over the