The precautions adopted by her coquetry appeared to him admirable. She wanted to die as she had lived, placing on her person the best that she possessed. Therefore, suspecting the nearness of her execution, she had a few days before reclaimed the jewels and the gown that she was wearing when arrest prevented her returning to Brest.
Her defender described her "with a dress of pearl gray silk, bronze stockings and low shoes, a great-coat of furs, and a large hat with plumes. Besides, the necklace of pearls was on her bosom, emeralds in her ears and all her diamonds on her fingers."
A sad smile curled her lips upon trying to look at herself in the window panes, still black with the darkness of night, which served her as a mirror.
"I die in my uniform like a soldier," she said to her lawyer.
Then in the ante-chamber of the prison, under the crude artificial light, this plumed woman, covered with jewels, her clothing exhaling a subtle perfume, memory of happier days, turned without any embarrassment toward the men clad in black and in blue uniforms.
Two religious sisters who accompanied her appeared more moved than she. They were trying to exhort her and at the same time were struggling to keep back the tears…. The priest was no less touched. He had attended other criminals, but they were men…. To assist to a decent death a beautiful perfumed woman scintillating with precious stones, as though she were going to ride in an automobile to a fashionable tea!…
The week before she had been in doubt as to whether to receive a Calvinist pastor or a Catholic priest. In her cosmopolitan life of uncertain nationality she had never taken the time to decide about any religion for herself. Finally she had selected the latter on account of its being more simple intellectually, more liberal and approachable….
Several times when the priest was trying to console her, she interrupted him as though she were the one charged with inspiring courage.
"To die is not so terrible as it appears when seen afar off!… I feel ashamed when I think of the fears that I have passed through, of the tears that I have shed…. It turns out to be much more simple than I had believed…. We all have to die!"
They read to her the sentence refusing the appeal for pardon. Then they offered her a pen that she might sign it.