Josephine heard the summons of the jailer with a quiet, easy smile;
she had not even a look for the fatal paper which lay on her bed.
Near this bed stood the physician, whom the compassionate republic,
which would not leave its prisoners to die on a sick-bed, but only
on the scaffold, had sent to Josephine to inquire into her illness
and afford her relief.
With indignation he eagerly snatched the paper from the bed, and,
returning it back to the jailer, exclaimed: "Tell the tribunal of
the revolution that it has nothing more to do with this woman!
Disease will bring on justice here, and leave nothing to do for the
guillotine. In eight days Citoyenne Beauharnais is dead!" [Footnote:
Aubenas, "Histoire de l'Imperatrice Josephine," vol. i., p. 235.]
This decision of the physician was transmitted to the tribunal,
which resolved that the trial of Madame Beauharnais would be
postponed for eight days, and that the tribunal would wait and see
if truly death would save her from the guillotine.
Meanwhile, during these eight days, events were to pass which were
to give a very different form to the state of things, and impart to
the young republic a new, unexpected attitude.
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