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THE MAGDALEN CHURCHYARD.

"Thou hast fulfilled, near Louis the last, a courageous and charitable ministry. The government of that time invited thee to perform it; the present government does not blame thee for it. On the contrary, it requests, that thou shouldst render to Maria Antoinette the same services, depending on thy sincerity for a detail of thy interviews with her. The committee will give orders, that thou mayest not be molested in the discharge of thy duty."

I answered nothing; what could I oppose to this stern inflexibility? I retired, filled with terror, and to rid myself of it, I found it necessary, when I entered my dwelling, to prostrate myself before my God. By degrees I was more composed; confidence, even courage revived in my heart. I offered to my God, who permits every thing, the sacrifice of the queen's life, and unable to save her from inevitable death, I resolved to use my endeavours to render her deserving of a better life.

TWELFTH NIGHT.

I THINK I may call the trial of Maria Antoinette the exploits of heroism, and her last moments the triumph of religion. No one could cherish life more than she; it seemed as if no one ought to have made greater efforts to defend it;

of a strict and equitable defence.

she only used those

This age, so fertile

in wonders, has witnessed the astonishing spectacle of a woman, still young and beautiful, marching to the scaffold, as if it had been the natural and ordinary close of life. The feeling philosopher, and the sober christian, have contemplated with admiration a powerful queen, a beloved wife, an ill fated mother, sacrificing to religion, to reason, and to necessity, her crown, her

husband, her children, her hopes, and even her regrets. No, neither the cold calculations of the world, nor the reasonings of metaphysical theology, can ever produce absolute self denial; religion alone can render us capable of it. I do not mean by religion the gross superstition of ignorant minds, and those ceremonies invented for the senses, but the direct emanation of that pure and sacred principle, which animates the universe, a mysterious chain, on which hang all worlds and all hearts, and which communicates to them feeling and life, and to man gratitude and devotion, creating and preserving breath, which lighted the sun and makes the grass to shoot, flame of courage and love, which stamped on the firmament, as well as on our hearts, the character of divinity.

This extraordinary and consoling spirit filled the queen's heart. When I returned to her, I found her soul so exalted, that I had not even an opportunity to make use of an indirect exhortation. She seemed, while preparing to appear before the sanguinary tribunal, and going to certain death, to be preparing for a festival. It was on the 21st. Vendemaire, a few min

utes before her secret interrogation, for which she was soon called. She appeared dressed in a black gown. The hall, where she was examined, was only lighted with two tapers on the clerk's table. A small wooden stool was destined to the queen of France, while president Hermann and the public accuser Fouquier were seated opposite to each other on magnificent

seats.

Antoinette answered the different questions proposed with precision, laconically and coolly. She might not only have indulged the contempt, which her judges inspired, but the indignation, which each question excited in her breast. She disdained those means; so perfect were her stoicism and apathy, which made her view with the same indifference life and death. Without being absolutely detached from life, she said no more, than was sufficient to prevent her condemnation, admitting however, that her judges had been inclined to hear her. But the protecting forms, exhibited in her trial, were only additional injuries, added to injustice and inhumanity. The cloak of each judge concealed a dagger.

It was during this short examination, that I heard of the incident, which had furnished an ostensible motive for the arrestation of the municipal officers, perhaps in consequence of the rupture of the negotiation in favour of the queen, and the acceleration of her trial. Michonis, with his accustomed facility, introduced into the queen's prison a man, not more prudent than himself, who dropped at her feet a pink, and, by a significant gesture, awoke the suspicions of the gendarme on guard; he informed the keepers of this fact, who denounced this man to the public accuser. The administration had long sought a pretence to commence the trial. Fouquier, as treacherous as cruel, ordered the informer to foster the intrigue, and not suppress it. The queen, deprived of the necessary implements for writing, made use of a pin to answer the billet; the gend'arme, affecting a tender pity, had obtained her confidence; she gave him a card on which her answer was pricked. These vouchers, indifferent in themselves, and which had no other importance than the mystery attached to them,