Their presence, it must be admitted, was well calculated to inspire both.

Very handsome, dressed in the latest fashion of the day, self-possessed without insolence, smiling toward the audience, courteous to their judges, though at times a little sarcastic, their personal appearance was their best defence.
The oldest of the four was barely thirty.

Questioned as to their names, Christian and family, their age, and places of birth, they answered as follows: "Charles de Sainte-Hermine, born at Tours, department of the Indre-et-Loire, aged twenty-four." "Louis-Andre de Jayat, born at Bage-le-Chateau, department of the Ain, aged twenty-nine." "Raoul-Frederic-Auguste de Valensolle, born at Sainte-Colombe, department of the Rhone, aged twenty-seven." "Pierre-Hector de Ribier, born at Bollene, department of Vaucluse, aged twenty-six." Questioned as to their social condition and state, all four said they were of noble rank and royalists.
These fine young men, defending themselves against death on the scaffold, not against a soldier's death before the guns--who asked the death they claimed to have merited as insurrectionists, but a death of honor--formed a splendid spectacle of youth, courage, and gallant bearing.
The judges saw plainly that on the accusation of being insurrectionists, the Vendee having submitted and Brittany being pacificated, they would have to be acquitted.

That was not a result to satisfy the minister of police.

Death awarded by a council of war would not have satisfied him; he had determined that these men should die the death of malefactors, a death of infamy.
The trial had now lasted three days without proceeding in the direction of the minister's wishes.