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Page 38
The Procureur-General requested the President to order the examinations
of Captain Wright on the 21st of May' and at a later period to be read
over to him; which being done, the witness replied, that it was omitted
to be stated that on these occasions the questions had been accompanied
with the threat of transferring him to a military tribunal, in order to
be shot, if he did not betray the secrets of his country.
In the course of the trial the most lively interest was felt for MM. de
Polignac--
--[The eldest of the Polignacs, Armand (1771-1847), condemned to
death, had that penalty remitted, but was imprisoned in Ham till
permitted to escape m 1813. He became Duc de Richelieu in 1817.
His younger brother, Jules (1780-1847) was also imprisoned and
escaped. In 1814 he was one of the first to display the white flag
in Paris. In 1829 he became Minister of Charles X. and was
responsible for the ordinances which oust his master his throne in
1830. Imprisoned, nominally for life, he was released in 1836, and
after passing some time in England returned to France. The
remission of the sentence of death on Prince Armand was obtained by
the Empress Josephine. Time after time, urged on by Madame de
Remusat, she implored mercy from Napoleon, who at last consented to
see the wife of the Prince. Unlike the Bourbon Louis XVIII., who
could see Madame de Lavalette only to refuse the wretched woman's
prayer for her husband, for Napoleon to grant the interview was to
concede the pardon. The Prince escaped death, and his wife who had
obtained the interview by applying to Madame de Remusat, when she
met her benefactress in the times of the Restoration, displayed a
really grand forgetfulness of what had passed (see Remusat, tome ii.
chap. i.).]--
Charles d'Hozier, and de Riviere. So short a period had elapsed since
the proscription of the nobility that, independently of every feeling of
humanity, it was certainly impolitic to exhibit before the public the
heirs of an illustrious name, endowed with 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
most justice, if one of us must fall a sacrifice, if there be yet time,
save him, restore him to the tears of his wife; I have no tie like him, I
can meet death unappalled;--too young to have tasted the pleasures of the
world, I cannot regret their loss."--" No, no," exclaimed his brother,
"you are still in the outset of your career; it is I who ought to fall."
At eight in the morning the members of the Tribunal withdrew to the
council-chamber. Since the commencement of the proceedings the crowd,
far from diminishing, seemed each day to increase; this morning it was
immense, and, though the sentence was not expected to be pronounced till
a late hour, no one quitted the Court for fear of not being able to find
a place when the Tribunal should resume its sitting.
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