The minister of police considered it his duty to conduct Barthélemy personally to the Temple. We have said that his servant Letellier asked to be permitted to accompany him. They refused at first, but finally granted his request.
"Who is this man?" asked Augereau, who did not recognize him as one of the exiles.
"He is my friend," said Barthélemy; "he asked to be allowed to follow me, and—"
"Pooh!" said Augereau, interrupting him, "when he knows where you are going he will not be so eager."
"I beg your pardon, citizen-general," replied Letellier, "but wherever my master goes I will follow him."
"Even to the scaffold?" asked Augereau.
"Above all, to the scaffold," replied the man.
By dint of entreaties and prayers the doors of the prison were opened to the wives of the prisoners. Every step they took in the courtyard, where a queen of France had suffered so bitterly, was fresh agony to them. Drunken soldiers insulte them at every turn.
"Are you coming to see those beggars?" they asked, pointing to the prisoners. "Make haste and say farewell to them to-day, for they will be shot to-morrow."
As we have already said, Pichegru was not married. When he came to Paris he did not wish to supplant poor Rose, for whom, as we have said, he had bought a cotton umbrella from his savings, which had delighted her much. When he saw his colleagues' wives, he approached them, and took Delarue's little son, who was crying, in his arms.