WITNESS IN THE TRIAL OF THE QUEEN. 225 



BAILLY IS CALLED AS A WITNESS IN THE TRIAL OF 

 THE QUEEN. HIS OWN TRIAL BEFORE THE REV- 

 OLUTIONARY TRIBUNAL. HIS CONDEMNATION TO 



DEATH. HIS EXECUTION. IMAGINARY DETAILS 



ADDED BY ILL-INFORMED HISTORIANS TO WHAT 

 THAT ^ODIOUS AND FRIGHTFUL EVENT ALREADY 

 PRESENTED. 



Bailly, under the weight of a capital accusation, and 

 precisely on account of a portion of the acts imputed to 

 Marie Antoinette, was heard as a witness in the trial of 

 that princess. The annals of tribunals, either ancient 

 or modern, never offered any thing like this. What did 

 they hope for ? To lead our colleague to make inexact 

 declarations, or to concealments from a feeling of immi- 

 nent personal danger ? To suggest the thought to him 

 to save his own head at the expense of that of an un- 

 happy woman ? To make virtue finally stagger ? At 

 all events, this infernal combination failed ; with a man 

 like Bailly it could not succeed. 



" Do you know the accused ? " said the President to 

 Bailly. " Oh ! yes, I do know her ! " answered the 

 witness, in a tone of emotion, and bowing respectfully to 

 Marie Antoinette. Bailly then protested with horror 

 against the odious imputations that the act of accusation 

 had put into the mouth of the young dauphin. From 

 that moment Bailly was treated with great harshness. 

 He seemed to have lost in the eyes of the tribunal the 

 character of a witness, and to have become the accused. 

 The turn that the debates took would really authorize us 

 to call the sitting in which the queen was condemned, (in 

 which she figured ostensibly as the only one accused,) the 

 trial of Marie Antoinette and of Bailly. What signified, 



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