Strona 144 z 483

Justine assumed an air of cheerfulness, while she with difficulty

repressed her bitter tears. She embraced Elizabeth and said in a

voice of half-suppressed emotion, "Farewell, sweet lady, dearest

Elizabeth, my beloved and only friend; may heaven, in its bounty,

bless and preserve you; may this be the last misfortune that you

will ever suffer! Live, and be happy, and make others so."

And on the morrow Justine died. Elizabeth's heart-rending

eloquence failed to move the judges from their settled conviction

in the criminality of the saintly sufferer. My passionate and

indignant appeals were lost upon them. And when I received their

cold answers and heard the harsh, unfeeling reasoning of these

men, my purposed avowal died away on my lips. Thus I might

proclaim myself a madman, but not revoke the sentence passed upon

my wretched victim. She perished on the scaffold as a murderess!