h that devoted heroism which
could not fail to extort admiration even from those who condemned their
opinions and principles.

The prisoners were all young, and their situation create universal
sympathy. The greatest number of them disdained to have recourse to a
denial, and seemed less anxious for the preservation of their own lives
than for the honour of the cause in which they had embarked, not with the
view of assassination, as had been demonstrated, but for the purpose of
ascertaining the true state of the public feeling, which had been
represented by some factious intriguers as favourable to the Bourbons.
Even when the sword of the law was suspended over their heads the
faithful adherents of the Bourbons displayed on every occasion their
attachment and fidelity to the royal cause. I recollect that the Court
was dissolved in tears when the President adduced as a proof of the guilt
of M. de Riviere his having worn a medal of the Comte d'Artois, which the
prisoner requested to examine; and, on its being handed to him by an
officer, M. de Riviere pressed it to his lips and his heart, then
returning it, he said that he only wished to render homage to the Prince
whom he loved.

The Court was still more deeply affected on witnessing the generous
fraternal struggle which took place during the last sitting between the
two De Polignacs. The emotion was general when the eldest of the
brothers, after having observed that his always going out alone and
during the day did not look like a conspirator anxious for concealment,
added these remarkable words which will remain indelibly engraven on my
memory: "I have now only one wish, which is that, as the sword is
suspended over our heads, and threatens to cut short the existence of
several of the accused, you would, in consideration of his youth if not
of his innocence, spare my brother, and shower down upon me the whole
weight of your vengeance." It was during the last sitting but one, on
Friday the 8th of June, that M. Armand de Polignac made the above
affecting appeal in favour of his brother. The following day, before the
fatal sentence was pronounced, M. Jules de Polignac addressed the judges,
saying, "I was so deeply affected yesterday, while my brother was
speaking, as not fully to have attended to what I read in my own defence:
but being now perfectly tranquil, I entreat, gentlemen, that you will not
regard what he urged in my behalf. I repeat, on the contrary, and with
m