heir task, that the jailer, a man named Richard, who, when
alone, ventured to show sympathy for her miseries, sought to encourage her
by the assurance that she would be replaced in the Temple. But Marie
Antoinette indulged in no such illusion. She never doubted that her death
was resolved on. "No," she replied to his well-meant words of hope, "they
have murdered the king; they will kill me in the same way. Never again
shall I see my unfortunate children, my tender and virtuous sister." And
the tears which her own sufferings could not wring from her flowed freely
when she thought of what they were still enduring.

But at last the eagerness for her destruction overcame all difficulties or
scruples. The principal articles of the indictment charged her with
helping to overthrow the republic and to effect the reestablishment of the
throne; with having exerted her influence over her husband to mislead his
judgment, to render him unjust to his people, and to induce him to put his
veto on laws of which they desired the enactment; with having caused
scarcity and famine; with having favored aristocrats; and with having kept
up a constant correspondence with her brother, the emperor; and the
preamble and the peroration compared her to Messalina, Agrippina,
Brunehaut, and Catherine de' Medici--to all the wickedest women of whom
ancient or modern history had preserved a record. Had she been guided by
her own feelings alone, she would have probably disdained to defend
herself against charges whose very absurdity proved that they were only
put forward as a pretense for a judgment that had been previously decided
on. But still, as ever, she thought of her child, her fair and good son,
her "gentle infant," her king. While life lasted she could never wholly
relinquish the hope that she might see him once again, perhaps even that
some unlooked-for chance (none could be so unexpected as almost every
occurrence of the last four years) might restore him and her to freedom,
and him to his throne; and for his sake she resolved to exert herself to
refute the charges, and at least to establish her right to acquittal and
deliverance.

Louis had been tried before the Convention. Marie Antoinette was to be
condemned by the, if possible, still more infamous court that had been
established in the spring under the name of the Revolutionary Tribunal;
and on the 13th of October she was at last conducted before a small
sub-committee, and subjected to a p