CHAPTER XXIV
The trial of Juliette.
It is all indelibly placed on record in the "Bulletin du TribunalRevolutionnaire," under date 25th Fructidor, year I. of the Revolution.
Anyone who cares may read, for the Bulletin is in the Archives of theBibliotheque Nationale of Paris.
One by one the accused had been brought forth, escorted by two men ofthe National Guard in ragged, stained uniforms of red, white, and blue;they were then conducted to the small raised platform in the centre ofthe hall, and made to listen to the charge brought against them byCitizen Foucquier-Tinville, the Public Presecutor.
They were petty charges mostly: pilfering, fraud, theft, occasionallyarson or manslaughter. One man, however, was arraigned for murder withhighway robbery, and a woman for the most ignoble traffic, which evilfeminine ingenuity could invent.
These two were condemned to the guillotine, the others sent to thegalleys at Brest or Toulon--the forger along with the petty thief, thehousebreaker with the absconding clerk.
There was no room in the prison for ordinary offences against thecriminal code; they were overfilled already with so-called traitorsagainst the Republic.
Three women were sent to the penitentiary at the Salpetriere, and weredragged out of the court shrilly protesting their innocence, andfollowed by obscene jeers from the spectators on the benches.
Then there was a momentary hush.
Juliette Marny had been brought in.
She was quite calm, and exquisitely beautiful, dressed in a plain greybodice and kirtle, with a black band round her slim waist and a softwhite kerchief folded across her bosom. Beneath the tiny, white cap hergolden hair appeared in dainty, curly profusion; her child-like, ovalface was very white, but otherwise quite serene.
She seemed absolutely unconscious of her surroundings, and walked with afirm step up to the platform, looking neither to the right nor to theleft of her.
Therefore she did not see Deroulede. A great, a wonderful radianceseemed to shine in her large eyes--the radiance of self-sacrifice.
She was offering not only her life, but everything a woman of refinementholds most dear, for the safety of the man she loved.
A feeling that was almost physical pain, so intense was it, overcameDeroulede, when at last he heard her name loudly called by the PublicProsecutor.
All day he had waited for this awful moment, forgetting his own misery,his own agonised feeling of an irretrievable loss, in the horriblethought of what _she_ would endure, what _she_ would think, when firstshe realised the terrible indignity, which was to be put upon her.
Yet for the sake of her, of her chances of safety and of ultimatefreedom, it was undoubtedly best that it should be so.
Arraigned for conspiracy against the Republic, she was liable to secrettrial, to be brought up, condemned, and executed before he could evenhear of her whereabouts, before he could throw himself before her judgesand take all guilt upon himself.
Those suspected of treason against the Republic forfeited, according toMerlin's most iniquitous Law, their rights of citizenship, in publicityof trial and in defence.
It all might have been finished before Deroulede knew anything of it.
The other way was, of course, more terrible. Brought forth amongst thescum of criminal Paris, on a charge, the horror of which, he could butdimly hope that she was too innocent to fully understand, he dared noteven think of what she would suffer.
But undoubtedly it was better so.
The mud thrown at her robes of purity could never cling to her, and atleast her trial would be public; he would be there to take all infamy,all disgrace, all opprobrium on himself.
The strength of his appeal would turn her judges' wrath from her to him;and after these few moments of misery, she would be free to leave Paris,France, to be happy, and to forget him and the memory of him.
An overwhelming, all-compelling love filled his entire soul for thebeautiful girl, who had so wronged, yet so nobly tried to save him. Alonging for her made his very sinews ache; she was no longer madonna,and her beauty thrilled him, with the passionate, almost sensuous desireto give his life for her.
The indictment against Juliette Marny has become history now.
On that day, the 25th Fructidor, at seven o'clock in the evening, it wasread out by the Public Prosecutor, and listened to by the accused--sothe Bulletin tells us--with complete calm and apparent indifference. Shestood up in that same pillory where once stood poor, guilty CharlotteCorday, where presently would stand proud, guiltless Marie Antoinette.
And Deroulede listened to the scurrilous document, with all the outwardcalm his strength of will could command. He would have liked to risefrom his seat then and there, at once, and in mad, purely animal furyhave, with a blow of his fist, quashed the words in Foucquier-Tinville'slying throat.
But for her sake he was bound to listen, and, above all, to act quietly,deliberately, according to form and procedure, so as in no way toimperil her cause.
Therefore he listened whilst the Public Prosecutor spoke.
"Juliette Marny, you are hereby accused of having, by a false andmalicious denunciation, slandered the person of a representative of thepeople; you caused the Revolutionary Tribunal, through this samemischievous act, to bring a charge against this representative of thepeople, to institute a domiciliary search in his house, and to wastevaluable time, which otherwise belonged to the service of the Republic.And this you did, not from a misguided sense of duty towards yourcountry, but in wanton and impure spirit, to be rid of the surveillanceof one who had your welfare at heart, and who tried to prevent yourleading the immoral life which had become a public scandal, and whichhas now brought you before this court of justice, to answer to a chargeof wantonness, impurity, defamation of character, and corruption ofpublic morals. In proof of which I now place before the court your ownadmission, that more than one citizen of the Republic has been led byyou into immoral relationship with yourself; and further, your ownadmission, that your accusation against Citizen-Deputy Deroulede wasfalse and mischievous; and further, and finally, your immoral andobscene correspondence with some persons unknown, which you vainly triedto destroy. In consideration of which, and in the name of the people ofFrance, whose spokesman I am, I demand that you be taken hence from thisHall of Justice to the Place de la Revolution, in full view of thecitizens of Paris an its environs, and clad in a soiled white garment,emblem of the smirch upon your soul, that there you be publicly whippedby the hands of Citizen Samson, the public executioner; after which,that you be taken to the prison of the Salpetriere, there to be furtherdetained at the discretion of the Committee of Public Safety. And now,Juliette Marny, you have heard the indictment preferred against you,have you anything to say, why the sentence which I have demanded shallnot be passed upon you?"
Jeers, shouts, laughter, and curses greeted this speech of the PublicProsecutor.
All that was most vile and most bestial in this miserable, misguidedpeople struggling for Utopia and Liberty, seemed to come to the surface,whilst listening to the reading of this most infamous document.
The delight of seeing this beautiful, ethereal woman, almost unearthlyin her proud aloofness, smirched with the vilest mud to which thevituperation of man can contrive to sink, was a veritable treat to thedegraded wretches.
The women yelled hoarse approval; the children, not understanding,laughed in mirthless glee; the men, with loud curses, showed theirappreciation of Foucquier-Tinville's speech.
As for Deroulede, the mental agony he endured surpassed any torturewhich the devils, they say, reserve for the damned. His sinews crackedin his frantic efforts to control himself; he dug his finger-nails intohis flesh, trying by physical pain to drown the sufferings of his mind.
He thought that his reason was tottering, that he would go mad if heheard another word of this infamy. The hooting and yelling of thatfilthy mob sounded like the cries of lost souls, shrieking from hell.All his pity for them was gone, his love for humanity, his de
votion tothe suffering poor.
A great, an immense hatred for this ghastly Revolution and the people itprofessed to free filled his whole being, together with a mad, hideousdesire to see them suffer, starve, die a miserable, loathsome death. Thepassion of hate, that now overwhelmed his soul, was at least as ugly astheirs. He was, for one brief moment, now at one with them in theirinordinate lust for revenge.
Only Juliette throughout all this remained calm, silent, impassive.
She had heard the indictment, heard the loathsome sentence, for herwhite cheeks had gradually become ashy pale, but never for a moment didshe depart from her attitude of proud aloofness.
She never once turned her head towards the mob who insulted her. Shewaited in complete passiveness until the yelling and shouting hadsubsided, motionless save for her finger-tips, which beat an impatienttattoo upon the railing in front of her.
The Bulletin says that she took out her handkerchief and wiped her facewith it. _Elle s'essuya le front qui fut perle de sueur._ The heat hadbecome oppressive.
The atmosphere was overcharged with the dank, penetrating odour ofsteaming, dirty clothes. The room, though vast, was close andsuffocating, the tallow candles flickering in the humid, hot air threwthe faces of the President and clerks into bold relief, with curiouscaricature effects of light and shade.
The petrol lamp above the head of the accused had flared up, and begunto smoke, causing the chimney to crack with a sharp report. Thisdiversion effected a momentary silence among the crowd, and the PublicProsecutor was able to repeat his query:
"Juliette Marny, have you anything to say in reply to the charge broughtagainst you, and why the sentence which I have demanded should not bepassed against you?"
The sooty smoke from the lamp came down in small, black, greasyparticles; Juliette with her slender finger-tips flicked one of thesequietly off her sleeve, then she replied:
"No; I have nothing to say."
"Have you instructed an advocate to defend you, according to your rightsof citizenship, which the Law allows?" added the Public Prosecutorsolemnly.
Juliette would have replied at once; her mouth had already framed the Nowith which she meant to answer.
But now at last had come Deroulede's hour. For this he had been silent,had suffered and had held his peace, whilst twice twenty-four hours haddragged their weary lengths along, since the arrest of the woman heloved.
In a moment he was on his feet before them all, accustomed to speak, todominate, to command.
"Citiziness Juliette Marny has entrusted me with her defence," he said,even before the No had escaped Juliette's white lips, "and I am here torefute the charges brought against her, and to demand in the name of thepeople of France full acquittal and justice for her."