France, yes, all Europe, whether the Queen of France was innocent in
the eyes of God and His representatives on earth, or whether a shade
of suspicion was thenceforth to rest upon that lofty brow!

At a very early hour of the morning, half-past five, the judges of
the high court of Parliament, forty-nine in number, gathered at the
council-room in order to pronounce sentence. At the same early hour,
an immense, closely-thronged crowd gathered in the broad square in
front of the prison, and gazed in breathless expectation at the
great gate of the building, hoping every minute that the judges
would come out, and that they should learn the sentence.

But the day wore on, and still the gates remained shut; no news came
from the council-room to enlighten the curiosity of the crowd that
filled the square and the adjacent streets.

Here and there the people began to complain, and loud voices were
heard grumbling at the protracted delay, the long deliberations of
the judges. Here and there faces were seen full of scornful
defiance, full of laughing malice, working their way through the
crowd, and now and then dropping stinging words, which provoked to
still greater impatience. All the orators of the clubs and of the
secret societies were there among the crowd, all the secret and open
enemies of the queen had sent their instruments thither to work upon
the people with poisonous words and mocking observations, and to
turn public opinion in advance against the queen, even in case the
judges did not condemn her; that is, if they did not declare the
cardinal innocent of conspiracy against the sovereign, and contempt
of the majesty of the queen.