rs,
which the entries in their books only served to increase. The arrival
of travellers, noted on the registers an hour too early or an hour too
late, furnished the prisoners with irrefutable alibis. The judges were
morally convinced of their guilt; but their conviction was impossible
against such testimony.

On the other hand, it must be said that public sympathy was wholly with
the prisoners.

The trial began. The prison at Bourg adjoins the courtroom. The
prisoners could be brought there through the interior passages. Large as
the hall was, it was crowded on the opening day. The whole population
of Bourg thronged about the doors, and persons came from Macon,
Sons-le-Saulnier, Besancon, and Nantua, so great was the excitement
caused by the stoppages, and so popular were the exploits of the
Companions of Jehu.

The entrance of the four prisoners was greeted by a murmur in which
there was nothing offensive. Public sentiment seemed equally divided
between curiosity and sympathy. Their presence, it must be admitted, was
well calculated to inspire both. Very handsome, dressed in the latest
fashion of the day, self-possessed without insolence, smiling toward the
audience, courteous to their judges, though at times a little sarcastic,
their personal appearance was their best defence.

The oldest of the four was barely thirty. Questioned as to their names,
Christian and family, their age, and places of birth, they answered as
follows:

"Charles de Sainte-Hermine, born at Tours, department of the
Indre-et-Loire, aged twenty-four."

"Louis-Andre de Jayat, born at Bage-le-Chateau, department of the Ain,
aged twenty-nine."

"Raoul-Frederic-Auguste de Valensolle, born at Sainte-Colombe,
department of the Rhone, aged twenty-seven."

"Pierre-Hector de Ribier, born at Bollene, department of Vaucluse, aged
twenty-six."

Questioned as to their social condition and state, all four said they
were of noble rank and royalists.

These fine young men, defending themselves against death on the
scaffold, not against a soldier's death before the guns--who asked the
death they claimed to have merited as insurrectionists, but a death
of honor--formed a splendid spectacle of youth, courage, and gallant
bearing.

The judges saw plainly that on the accusation of being insurrectionists,
the Vendee having submitted and Brittany being pacificated, they would
have to be acquitted. That was not a result to satisfy the minister of
police.