He need only call the jailer and say to him: "Hasten to Baroness de Simonie in Schottengasse.

Tell her that I beg her to come here; tell her that I must die and wish to bid her farewell.

She is my betrothed bride; she has a right to take leave of me." He only needed to say this and his request would have been fulfilled, for the last wishes of the dying and of those condemned to death are sacred, and will never be denied, if it is possible to grant them.
But he had the strength to repress this most sacred, deepest desire of his heart, for such a message would have compromised _her_.

Perhaps she, too, might have been dragged into the investigation, punished as a criminal, though she was innocent.
No, he dared not send to her! His Leonore, the beloved, worshipped idol of his heart, should not suffer a moment's anxiety through him.

He loved her so fervently that for her sake he joyfully sacrificed even his longing for her.