Being arrested and thrown into prison, Madame du Barry was tried and condemned to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal at the end of 1793. She was the only woman, among all who perished in those dreadful days, unable to face the scaffold with fortitude; she screamed, she begged for forgiveness to the hideous mob surrounding her, and that mob became moved to such a degree that the executioner hastened to finish his task. This has always confirmed my belief that if the victims of that period of execrable memory had not had the noble pride of dying with fortitude the Terror would have ceased long before it did.
I don't see why "noble pride" shouldn't also move people to pity. But I guess the mobs saw it differently.
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