vices in which he indulged. Hebert said
that it was no doubt the intention of Marie Antoinette, by weakening thus,
early the physical constitution of her son, to secure to herself the means
of ruling him in case he should ever ascend the throne. The rumours which
had been whispered for twenty years by a malicious Court had given the
people a most unfavourable opinion of the morals of the Queen. That
audience, however, though wholly Jacobin, was disgusted at the accusations
of Hebert.

[Can there be a more infernal invention than that made against the. Queen
by Hdbert,--namely, that she had had an improper intimacy with her own
son? He made use of this sublime idea of which he boasted in order to
prejudice the women against the Queen, and to prevent her execution from
exciting pity. It had, however, no other effect than that of disgusting
all parties.--PRUDHOMME.]

He nevertheless persisted in supporting them.

[Hebert did not long survive her in whose sufferings he had taken such an
infamous part. He was executed on 26th March, 1794.]

The unhappy mother made no reply. Urged a new to explain herself, she
said, with extraordinary emotion, "I thought that human nature would
excuse me from answering such an imputation, but I appeal from it to the
heart of every mother here present." This noble and simple reply affected
all who heard it.

In the depositions of the witnesses, however, all was not so bitter for
Marie Antoinette. The brave D'Estaing, whose enemy she had been, would
not say anything to inculpate her, and spoke only of the courage which she
had shown on the 5th and 6th of October, and of the noble resolution which
she had expressed, to die beside her husband rather than fly. Manuel, in
spite of his enmity to the Court during the time of the Legislative
Assembly, declared that he could not say anything against the accused.
When the venerable Bailly was brought forward, who formerly so often
predicted to the Court the calamities which its imprudence must produce,
he appeared painfully affected; and when he was asked if he knew the wife
of Capet, "Yes," said he, bowing respectfully, "I have known Madame." He
declared that he knew nothing, and maintained that the declarations
extorted from the young Prince relative to the journey to Varennes were
false. In recompense for his deposition he was assailed with outrageous
reproaches, from which he might judge what fate would soon be awarded to
himself.