inie. We have
committed no crime.'

"Carrier himself was there, and he said:

"'You are charged with being enemies of France, with being here
in disguise, and with trying to leave France contrary to the laws
against emigration, and with being in company with one who, under
false pretenses, obtained admission to the Committee of Safety
here, but who is an enemy and traitor to France. What do you say?'

"'I do not deny that we were in disguise,' she said in her clear
voice. 'Nor do I deny that we should have escaped if we could. And
as you treat us as enemies, and our lives are in danger, I cannot
see that we were to blame in doing so. I deny that we are enemies
of France, or that the gentleman who was with us was so either. He
did not obtain a place on the committee by fraud, for he was really
the secretary of Monsieur Robespierre, and he could not refuse the
post when it was offered to him.'

"Then we thought it was time to speak, and the women cried out
for mercy, and said how good she had been to the poor; and we men
cried out too. And then Carrier got into a passion, and said they
were traitors and worthy of death, and that they should die. And
we shouted we would not have it, and broke into the Tribunal and
surrounded mesdemoiselles, and then the guards rushed in and there
was a fight. We beat them off and got outside, and then a regiment
came up, and they were too strong for us, though we fought stoutly,
I can tell you, for our blood was up; but it was no use. The dear
ladies were captured again, and many of us got severe wounds. But
the feeling was strong, I can tell you, among the sailors when the
news spread through the town, for some of the women got hurt, too,
in the melee, and I think we could get five hundred men together
to storm the jail."

Harry was bitterly disappointed, for he had hoped that the
intercession of the women might have availed with the judges, and
doubtless would have done so had not Carrier himself been present.
However, he thanked the sailor warmly for the efforts he had made
and gave him some money to distribute among the wounded, for he
always carried half his money concealed in a belt under his clothes.
The other half was hidden away under a board in his lodgings,
so that in case of his being captured the girls would still have
funds available for their escape. As to the prospects of storming
the jail he did not feel sanguine. It was strongly guarded, and
there were three reg