de Courtornieu and the Duc de Sairmeuse were secretly blaming
themselves for the exaggerations in their first reports, and the manner
in which they had magnified the proportions of the rebellion. They
accused each other of undue haste, of neglect of the proper forms of
procedure, and the injustice of the verdict rendered.
Each endeavored to make the other responsible for the blood which had
been spilled; one tried to cast the public odium upon the other.
Meanwhile they were both doing their best to obtain a pardon for the six
prisoners who had been reprieved.
They did not succeed.
One night a courier arrived at Montaignac, bearing the following laconic
despatch:
"The twenty-one convicted prisoners must be executed."
That is to say, the Duc de Richelieu, and the council of ministers,
headed by M. Decazes, the minister of police, had decided that the
petitions for clemency must be refused.
This despatch was a terrible blow to the Duc de Sairmeuse and M. de
Courtornieu. They knew, better than anyone else, how little these poor
men, whose lives they had tried, too late, to save, deserved death.
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