for the entire justification
of their mother," the request was rudely refused; and all that the lawyers
could do was to address eloquent appeals to the judges and jurymen, being
utterly unable, on so short notice, to analyze as they deserved the
arguments of the prosecutor or the testimony by which he had professed to
support them. But before such a tribunal it signified little what was
proved or disproved, or what was the strength or weakness of the arguments
employed on either side. It was long after midnight of the second day that
the trial concluded. The jury at once pronounced the prisoner guilty. The
judges as instantly passed sentence of death, and ordered it to be
executed the next morning.

It was nearly five in the morning of the 16th of October when the favorite
daughter of the great Empress-queen, herself Queen of France, was led from
the court, not even to the wretched room which she had occupied for the
last ten weeks, but to the condemned cell, never tenanted before by any
but the vilest felons. Though greatly exhausted by the length of the
proceedings, she had heard the sentence without betraying the slightest
emotion by any change of countenance or gesture. On reaching her cell she
at once asked for writing materials. They had been withheld from her for
more than a year, but they were now brought to her; and with them she
wrote her last letter to that princess whom she had long learned to love
as a sister of her own, who had shared her sorrows hitherto, and who, at
no distant period, was to share the fate which was now awaiting herself.

"16th October, 4.30 A.M.

"It is to you, my sister, that I write for the last time. I have just been
condemned, not to a shameful death, for such is only for criminals, but to
go and rejoin your brother. Innocent like him, I hope to show the same
firmness in my last moments. I am calm, as one is when one's conscience
reproaches one with nothing. I feel profound sorrow in leaving my poor
children: you know that I only lived for them and for you, my good and
tender sister. You who out of love have sacrificed everything to be with
us, in what a position do I leave you! I have learned from the proceedings
at my trial that my daughter was separated from you. Alas! poor child; I
do not venture to write to her; she would not receive my letter. I do not
even know whether this will reach you. Do you receive my blessing for both
of them. I hope that one day when they are older