he arrived in England, ill, exhausted by
sufferings and fatigue, followed even in his captivity by the reproaches
and anger of his comrades in misfortune, when be heard of the outbreak of
public opinion against him in France; he was accused of treason; and he
obtained from the English cabinet permission to repair to Paris.
"I bring hither my head and my innocence," he wrote, on disembarking, to
the minister of war, and he went voluntarily to imprisonment in the
Bastille. There he remained nineteen months without being examined.
When the trial commenced in December, 1764, the heads of accusation
amounted to one hundred and sixty, the number of witnesses to nearly two
hundred; the matter lasted a year and a half, conducted with violence on
the part of M. de Lally's numerous enemies, with inveteracy on the part
of the Parliament, still at strife with the government, with courage and
firmness on the part of the accused. He claimed the jurisdiction of a
court-martial, but his demand was rejected; when he saw himself
confronted with the dock, the general suddenly uncovered his whitened
head and his breast covered with scars, exclaiming, "So this is the
reward for fifty years' service!" On the 6th of May, 1766, his sentence
was at last pronounced. Lally was acquitted on the charges of high
treason and malversation; he was found "guilty of violence, abuse of
authority, vexations and exactions, as well as of having betrayed the
interests of the king and of the Company." When the sentence was being
read out to the condemned, "Cut it short, sir," said the count to the
clerk come to the conclusions." At the words "betrayed the interests of
the king," Lally drew himself up to his full height, exclaiming, "Never,
never!" He was expending his wrath in insults heaped upon his enemies,
when, suddenly drawing from his pocket a pair of mathematical compasses,
he struck it violently against his heart; the wound did not go deep
enough; M. de Lally was destined to drink to the dregs the cup of man's
injustice.

On the 9th of May, at the close of the day, the valiant general whose
heroic resistance had astounded all India, mounted the scaffold on the
Place de Greve, nor was permission granted to the few friends who
remained faithful to him to accompany him to the place of execution;
there was only the parish priest of St. Louis en l'Ile at his side; as
apprehensions were felt of violence and insult on the part of the
condemned, he was