He even turned the scales in favor of the prisoners by dwelling on the senator's evidence.

This clemency, however, did not in the least endanger the success of the prosecution.

At eleven o'clock that night, after the jury had replied through their foreman to the usual questions, the Court condemned Michu to death, the Messieurs de Simeuse to twenty-four years' and the Messieurs d'Hauteserre to ten years, penal servitude at hard labor.

Gothard was acquitted.
The whole audience was eager to observe the bearing of the five guilty men in this supreme moment of their lives.

The four gentlemen looked at Laurence, who returned them, with dry eyes, the ardent look of the martyrs.
"She would have wept had we been acquitted," said the younger de Simeuse to his brother.
Never did convicted men meet an unjust fate with serener brows or countenances more worthy of their manhood than these five victims of a cruel plot.
"Our counsel has forgiven you," said the eldest de Simeuse to the Court.
* * * * * Madame d'Hauteserre fell ill, and was three months in her bed at the hotel de Chargeboeuf.