land, with an energy of will, an infallibility of purpose, a
firmness of stoical endurance which no mortal man has ever exceeded,
combined that gentleness, and tenderness, and affection--that
instinctive sense of the proprieties of her sex--which gathered around
her a love as pure and as enthusiastic as woman ever excited. And
while her friends, many of whom were the most illustrious men in
France, had enthroned her as an idol in their hearts, the breath of
slander never ventured to intimate that she was guilty even of an
impropriety.

The day before her trial, her advocate, Chauveau de la Garde, visited
her to consult respecting her defense. She, well aware that no one
could speak a word in her favor but at the peril of his own life, and
also fully conscious that her doom was already sealed, drew a ring
from her finger, and said to him,

"To-morrow I shall be no more. I know the fate which awaits me. Your
kind assistance can not avail aught for me, and would but endanger
you. I pray you, therefore, not to come to the tribunal, but to accept
of this last testimony of my regard."

The next day she was led to her trial. She attired herself in a white
robe, as a symbol of her innocence, and her long dark hair fell in
thick curls on her neck and shoulders. She emerged from her dungeon a
vision of unusual loveliness. The prisoners who were walking in the
corridors gathered around her, and with smiles and words of
encouragement she infused energy into their hearts. Calm and
invincible she met her judges. She was accused of the crimes of being
the wife of M. Roland and the friend of his friends. Proudly she
acknowledged herself guilty of both those charges. Whenever she
attempted to utter a word in her defense, she was brow-beaten by the
judges, and silenced by the clamors of the mob which filled the
tribunal. The mob now ruled with undisputed sway in both legislative
and executive halls. The serenity of her eye was untroubled, and the
composure of her disciplined spirit unmoved, save by the exaltation of
enthusiasm, as she noted the progress of the trial, which was bearing
her rapidly and resistlessly to the scaffold. It was, however,
difficult to bring any accusation against her by which, under the form
of law, she could be condemned. France, even in its darkest hour, was
rather ashamed to behead a woman, upon whom the eyes of all Europe
were fixed, simply for being the _wife of her husband and the friend
of his friends_