Helen Maria Williams was an English writer and poet who lived in France during the revolution. She was a political moderate, a supporter of the National Assembly and the Girondins, but an opponent of violence and radicalism. Here, in a private letter, she recalls the trial and execution of Marie-Antoinette:
“For a long time the Jacobins had demanded the trial of Marie-Antoinette, whose existence, they declared, endangered that of the republic. She was accordingly arraigned for having committed a series of crimes which, in the language of the indictment, comprehended not merely counter-revolutionary projects, but all the enormities of the Messalinas, Brunehauts, Fredegondes and Medicis.
A curious account of the evidence in support of these charges, and the effect which her behaviour produced upon Robespierre, is given by Vilate, a young man of the Revolutionary Tribunal. The scene passed during the trial at a tavern near the Tuileries, where Vilate was invited to dine with Robespierre, Barere and Saint-Just.
‘Seated around the table,’ he says, ‘in a close and retired room, they asked me to give them some leading features of the evidence on the trial of the Austrian. I did not forget that expostulation of insulted nature when Hebert, accusing Marie- Antoinette of having committed the most shocking crime [incest], she turned with dignity towards the audience and said, “I appeal to the conscience and feelings of every mother present, to declare if there be one amongst you who does not shudder at the idea of such horrors.”
Robespierre, struck with this answer as by an electrical stroke, broke his plate with his fork. “That blockhead Hebert!” cried he, “as if it were not enough that she was really a Messalina, he must make her an Agrippina also, and furnish her with the triumph of exciting the sympathy of the public in her last moments.”
Marie-Antoinette made no defence and called no witnesses, alleging that no positive fact had been produced against her. She had preserved a uniform behaviour during the whole of her trial, except when a starting tear accompanied her answer to Hebert.
She was condemned about four in the morning (October 16th 1793) and heard her sentence with composure. But her firmness forsook her on the way from the court to her dungeon. She burst into tears; as if ashamed of this weakness, she observed to her guards that though she wept at that moment, they should see her go to the scaffold without shedding a tear.
On her way to execution, where she was taken after the accustomed manner in a cart with her hands tied behind her, she paid little attention to the priest who attended her. She reached the place of execution about noon, and when she turned her eyes towards the palace, she became visibly agitated. She ascended the scaffold with precipitation, and her head was in a moment held up to the people by the executioner.”