nde's admirable self-abnegation was, however, a source of
triumph for her woman-heart, as the Prince was not proof against so
unequivocal a demonstration of attachment, and thenceforward evinced
towards her a tenderness which amply repaid her sacrifice.

Shortly after the transfer of Madame d'Ancre to the Conciergerie she was
put upon her trial; but as her mental hallucination, together with her
estrangement from her husband, rendered it probable that sufficient
proof of political delinquency could not be adduced against her to
justify an extreme sentence, and as her escape from the scaffold must
necessarily tend to render his tenure of the confiscated property of
Concini (of which he had already obtained the reversion) difficult, if
not impossible, De Luynes did not hesitate to tamper with her judges,
and to induce them, alike by bribes and threats, to accomplish her
death. For this purpose a second charge was coupled with that of
_lese-majeste_, which was brought conjointly against herself and her
murdered husband. She was accused of sorcery as well as of conspiring
against the state; of casting alike nativities to compass the
destruction of the King, and cannon for the service of the disaffected
Princes; together with a host of other crimes, none of which could be
proved against her. So palpable, indeed, was the motive of her
persecutors, that it excited the popular indignation; and the masses,
who had so recently execrated the name of the unfortunate woman, began,
ere the conclusion of her trial, to look upon her only as the victim of
De Luynes. "You will see," said some of the citizens, as they learnt
with what dignified calmness and logical precision she refuted the
several charges brought against her, "that here the case of the Duc de
Biron will be reversed--like her he was the victim of policy, but he
died like a woman, while she will meet her fate like a man."

And they were correct in their conclusion. Whatever might have been her
faults while she continued the favourite of fortune, Leonora Galigai was
grand in her adversity; and one of her judges was so much overpowered by
his conviction of her innocence, that on recollecting the pledge which
he had given to De Luynes to decide upon her guilt, he fainted and was
carried from the Court. When accused of treason against the state, the
prisoner replied by reminding her accusers of her total estrangement
from her husband during the last two years, throughout which