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272 OUR FRENCH CORRESPONDENT.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Ladies, Paris, November 20, 1861.
liim from the Mountain . In fixing on Gustave Doulcet Pontecoulant I imagine that he will refuse the honor ; but that will not be a
troublesome task . " Pontecoulant , who had in ' 89 abandoned all Iris titles and only keptin addition to that of citizenthe motto of "
, , his family , " La Noblesse oblige" did not refuse the dangerous office . Tip to the day the " Souvenirs " were published the contrary was
generally supposed , and remained the only stain upon a fair fame that the "writer so well earned . But the circumstance is thus explained : —•
e < Although his name was not inscribed upon the last proof sheets of the dead list of the 2 nd June , the decree of accusation was issued .
which obliged him to take many precautions to escape the sword . thus suspended over his head . He , however , continued to attend each .
day the Assembly , but each evening changed his place of refuge to prevent any sudden arrest being made , perhaps when utterly
defenceless or _asleej _) , as had occurred to several of his colleagues . ' ' The _fainoxis , or more properly speaking _infamousFouquier-Tinville
, wrote to him , mentioning Charlotte Corday ' s very dangerous _apjDointment . But the letter was brought to the house where he had slept
the night before at a moment when the Republican deputy was warned not to return . It therefore never reached him ; and tlie
gendarme , not finding the object of his search , returned it to the writer , who did not in this instance push the search with as much
activity as he otherwise might but perhaps concluded that it would have been useless trouble , as the Mountain had by that
time acquired the habit of passing judgment beforehand upon _, the innocent and high-minded men and women of ' 89 , and there ¦
. in 'was whose certainl defence y a greater the onl temp y excuse tation to which do so could in the be case urged of a for woman the ¦ . ¦
homicide committed by her was , that the events she witnessed excited her feelings of patriotism into insanity . Neither did
Fouquier-Tinville approve of the selection made by Charlotte Corday , for the " Souvenirs" state that , by word of mouth , he remarked to her
that Pontecoulant ' s functions of deputy did not permit him to act as avocat _, and that in all j ) _robaTbility he would refuse that office .
The day following , when Charlotte Corday appeared before the tribunal at an early hour in the forenoon , neither counsellor nor
defender were there to plead her cause . The president having , acpording to custom , interrogated her upon this pointshe replied
, that she had chosen a friend , but that not having for a very long time either heard from or seen him , she thought that he would not come
forward in her behalf . The _jii & ge had then the option of nominating one ; and happening to see in the crowd Chauveau Lagarde ,. ..
: _se power lected him and , an and eloquence he , to the entirel astonishment y a V in _% 2 of _^ rovis all te present and totall , ple ad _ojDposite ed with _,
in style to the studied harangues which the Mountain was then _, bringing into fashion . Charlotte Cordaydeceived by the president
, , thought that Pontecoulant abandoned her on account of not having
the courage to defend her . She is said , in the " Souvenirs" to have- > |
272 Our French Correspondent.
272 OUR FRENCH CORRESPONDENT .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1861, page 272, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121861/page/56/
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