r mental operations, that it will ever be read with the
liveliest interest.

"I am accused," she writes, "of being the accomplice of men
called conspirators. My intimacy with a few of these gentlemen is
of much older date than the occurrences in consequence of which
they are now deemed rebels. Our correspondence, since they left
Paris, has been entirely foreign to public affairs. Properly
speaking, I have been engaged in no political correspondence
whatever, and in that respect I might confine myself to a simple
denial. I certainly can not be called upon to give an account of
my particular affections. I have, however, the right to be proud
of these friendships. I glory in them. I wish to conceal nothing.
I acknowledge that, with expressions of regret at my confinement,
I received an intimation that Duperret had two letters for me,
whether written by one or by two of my friends, before or after
their leaving Paris, I can not say. Duperret had delivered them
into other hands, and they never came to mine. Another time I
received a pressing invitation to break my chains, and an offer
of services, to assist me in effecting my escape in any way I
might think proper, and to convey me whithersoever I might
afterward wish to go. I was dissuaded from listening to such
proposals by duty and by honor: by duty, that I might not
endanger the safety of those to whose care I was confided; and by
honor, because I preferred the risk of an unjust trial to
exposing myself to the suspicion of guilt by a flight unworthy of
me. When I consented to my arrest, it was not with the intention
of afterward making my escape. Without doubt, if all means of
communication had not been cut off, or if I had not been
prevented by confinement, I should have endeavored to learn what
had become of my friends. I know of no law by which my doing so
is forbidden. In what age or in what nation was it ever
considered a crime to be faithful to those sentiments of esteem
and brotherly affection which bind man to man?

"I do not pretend to judge of the measures of those who have been
proscribed, but I will never believe in the evil intentions of
men of whose probity and patriotism I am thoroughly convinced. If
they erred, it was unintentionally. They fall without being
abased, and I rega